Midnight Memories
by MistyArturo
Summary: Emma leaves to go tie things up in Boston but gets in an accident. Can she remember her life? Established SwanQueen.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N ~** _This is set in an odd time line for the show. It's after Emma and Mary Margaret come back from the Enchanted Forest, but Neverland and Cora coming to Storybrooke just kind of never happened._

_Please, please, PLEASE leave feedback in the reviews to let me know what you think!_

_Enjoy! X_

* * *

Regina and Henry stood at the foot of the stairs in Regina's mansion as Emma dropped her old, beaten up, black duffel down next to the door with a thud, followed by her red leather jacket, which landed in a haphazard pile on top of it. Henry was tucked firmly into Regina's side, her hand holding the back of his head as her nails scratched lightly at Henry's scalp. Emma turned to face them, smiling, and opened her arms up. Henry immediately flew from Regina's side and into Emma's arms, squeezing her waist as tight as he possibly could, and she hugged him back.

"I'm gonna miss you Emma." She tried her hardest to keep her smile on as she placed her hand on her son's shoulders and squatted down to her his level and looked him in the eyes.

"Take of her for me, alright?" She briefly lifted her eyes to Regina who was still standing in front of the landing, her arms now hugged across her body. He grinned up at her in that way that only an eleven year old could and nodded eagerly. Emma grinned and tousled Henry's hair as she stood up and gave him one last hug. Henry finally let Emma go when Regina cleared her throat softly and placed her hand on her son's shoulder as she took a few steps forward.

"Henry, dear? Could you give us a minute please?" He opened his mouth to protest that he wanted to wave Emma off, but Regina gave him a look that said 'that wasn't really me asking' and he nodded, getting over it quickly.

"Yeah." He pushed between his two mothers and pounded up the stairs as if he was trying to break every single one. "See ya later Emma!" He called as he reached the top landing and quickly disappeared behind a closed bedroom door moments later.

"Well he certainly won't miss me..." Emma laughed as she looked up the stairs after him and Regina rolled her eyes.

"Please. Tonight he'll be bothering me about when you're coming back; you're the only one who'll buy him ice cream." Both women laughed this time.

"Are you sure you have everything?" Emma rolled her eyes.

"Yes."

"Toothbrush?"

"Yes."

"Deodorant?"

"Yes..."

"Clean clothes?"

"_Yes_."

"Hair brush?"

"_Regina_."

"I just want to make sure you don't forget anything!"

"We're all acting like I'm leaving for a year. I'll only be gone one night, two at the most."

"There's nothing wrong with making sure you're prepared." Regina pursed her lips slightly.

"I'm going to be in a city. There's a drug store on every corner; I'll be able to get another deodorant if I don't have any." Emma gave Regina as serious of a look as she could, but she found herself grinning again as Regina glared at her halfheartedly.

"Be careful, alright?" Even though Regina's tone had fallen quite a ways from teasing, Emma had to suppress a laugh.

"I will." Emma tried to take Regina as seriously as she could, but a smile still crept across her face and Regina looked outraged.

"I'm serious! Don't do anything stupid!"

"You sound like my mother..." Emma wondered if Regina knew how to make any other facial expression other than glaring. "I'm serious. I'm a grown woman, and I've lived on my own for years. I'm going to be fine." Regina bit her lip, knowing that Emma was right.

"This is the longest you've been away since you ended up in the Enchanted Forest, excuse me for having separation anxiety." Regina put her hand on her hip, but it dropped as quickly as it was put there. "Promise you'll call me when you get there?"

"Of course." Regina nodded as Emma shrugged into her leather jacket then grabbed her bag off the floor, ungracefully hoisting it over her shoulder with a 'humpf'. Emma was just about out the door when she felt Regina grab her arm and pull her back into the house. Regina then tilted her head to the right, pressing their lips together and tangling her fingers into Emma's long, blonde tresses. They ignored the sound of a duffel bag dropping to the floor with a loud thud as Emma let out a soft hum of approval and her hands slid from Regina's arms to her hips, resting just above her hip bone, pulling her closer. When they broke apart for air, both women were smiling. Emma cupped Regina's face with her hands, their foreheads pressed together. Regina could feel the warm puffs of Emma catching her breath against her chin "Well, that's definitely a good reason to hurry back..." Regina let out a breathy laugh as Emma placed her hand under her chin, using a strong thumb to try and wipe away some of the bright red lipstick that was now smeared across her face. Emma gave up quickly, knowing Regina would have to fix it herself and slowly, regretfully pulled away from Regina, who started fixing her white, button down shirt, which had come un tucked from her black dress pants.

Emma smiled at Regina as she grabbed her duffel and headed out the door. She threw the beaten up bag into the back seat of her bug amongst a jumble of assorted trash, magazines, and a couple t shirts that had seen much better days before slamming the door shut and getting into the driver's seat. It took two tries to get the little yellow car's engine to turn over and Emma couldn't help but wonder if it would be time to trade it in once she got back home, if it even got her back home. Emma looked out the passenger side window as she rolled it down to find Regina, who was standing on the front porch, absentmindedly twisting her ring on her finger. Emma smiled and waved back before putting the car in reverse and pulling out of the driveway. She stopped for a second, catching Henry hanging out of his bedroom window, walkie talkie in hand. She grinned and grabbed hers from the passenger seat and pressed the button.

"Hey kid, don't so anything stupid, alright?"

"You got it Emma."

"And go talk to your mom every once in a while; it won't kill you I promise." Emma laughed as she heard a crackly groan once she let the speak button go.

"_Fine_." Emma dropped her walkie talking back onto the seat and waved one more time before pulling away from the curb. Regina stood outside and waved until she couldn't see the car anymore before she went back inside. Henry had come back downstairs and was sitting on the floor in the living room playing a video game. He paused it and twisted around to look at Regina who had sat down on the couch behind him to watch.

"She's gone?"

"Yes, she is." Regina looked up at the paused screen and frowned. "Don't leave the screen like that, you'll ruin the TV." Henry rolled his eyes and instead of turning the screen off, went back to playing. They sat for a while, Regina occasionally asking a question or commenting on how he could be outside, but they both knew that wasn't going to happen.

Regina had just started to doze off to the Super Mario Bros. theme song playing in the background when the phone rang. Henry jumped up and answered it

"Hello? Hey Joe, what's up?" Henry looked at his mother and treid to mouth something to her while his friend was still talking, but Regina couldn't understand him. He rolled his eyes and held up a finger for her to wait a second. She nodded and waited for him to cover up the mouthpiece, even though she found the gesture a little rude. "One second Joe." Henry placed his thumb over the microphone and pulled the phone away from his ear. "Can I go over to Joe's house?"

"Is his mother okay with it?"

"Yeah, she is."

"Yes, you can go." Henry smiled.

"Thanks Mom." He put the phone back to his ear. "Yeah I can come over. The usual? Kay, Bye." They hung up and Henry immediately started assembling a backpack filled with video games, his laptop, his phone, a few flash drives that Regina never understood what he needed them for, and of course, his storybook. He grabbed his helmet and tucked it under his arm.

"Bye Mom." Regina smiled and folded her arms.

"You know you have to be home by dinner?"

"Yes, mother." The teenaged tone of voice was evident as Henry walked out the door.

"Alright. Goodbye." The door slammed shut and Regina almost pulled the door back open to scold Him, but she stopped herself and instead walked over to the big window in the sitting room to watch as as Henry pulled his bike out of the back of the garage with only minor difficulties. It was the first time he was using it all year, and Regina couldn't help but laugh as he checked the tires, groaned, then dropped all his things on the ground and stormed back into the garages to look for the bike pump that Regina didn't even know the location of. Several minutes later he came back out, a plastic balloon pump in hand. Surprisingly, it worked well enough and Henry had his tries re inflated in under a minute. He threw the pump back into the garage, hopped back on his bike, and rode away down the street. Regina sighed and got up off the couch and went into the kitchen, made herself a cup of coffee and sat down on a bar stool at her kitchen counter, wrapping both hands around her mug and taking a sip from it. Regina was alone for the first time in a long time, and she hated it.

* * *

Emma arrived at her old apartment in Boston and practically jumped out of the car to crack her back and stretch. _Home sweet home… _She thought to herself as she grabbed her duffel out of the back seat and headed upstairs. Half surprised the lock was still there, Emma unlocked the door and sighed; the place was just as she had left it: a mess. Then the smell hit her. Emma retched as she threw her bag down and went to the kitchen and opened her fridge where she was greeted by a green bottle of milk, a carton of yellow eggs, and three bricks of moldy cheese. Throwing them into the garbage can, she proceeded to take the whole thing out and throw it in the dumpster, garbage can included.

Once Emma got back upstairs the smell was considerably better, so she headed into her bedroom to grab a couple things, like her hairbrush, the rest of her clothes; which mainly consisted of skinny jeans, camisoles, and black bras, three other pairs of boots and one pair of sneakers, her baby blanket, and a hidden stash of cash, which in total was probably about $500. She carried them back to the living room and threw them into her bag and zipped it back up. _Well that was easy… _Emma thought to herself as she looked out the window and saw that the sun was starting to think about setting. _Ugh… Guess I can't head __back now__… _Emma couldn't help but feel a little happy at the fact that it was too late to start heading home; she was tried and didn't know if she would even be able to make it back to Storybrooke without a nap thrown into the trip somewhere. She instead decided to grab some food at a bar she remembered a couple blocks over. She decided to walk, not wanting to deal with 20 minutes of traffic when she could get there in 10. As she went down the side walk, she couldn't help but get nostalgic. She had always loved cities, and Boston would have a special place in her heart as her first.

Emma got inside the dark bar and grabbed a stool at the counter. It only took a minute for someone to come over and take her order for some buffalo chicken wings, a salad, and a Bud Light. They walked away and Emma sighed, deciding to watch the baseball game up on one of the three screens posted around the place that were all playing different sports, but soon got bored of it, never having cared much. She looked around, seeing if there was anyone interesting enough to strike up a conversation with. She soon realized that everyone in the place was either a drunk, or with 10 or 15 pals watching the game. The bartender slid her beer over to her and she nodded in his direction in thanks. She sipped it and set it back down on the table, twisting it in its ring of condensation on the wood. She bit her lip as she thought of Regina and Henry sitting at home. Henry would have loved to watch the games on such big TVs and Regina would have loved it if Emma had made her drink a beer. She sighed sadly but soon perked up and tucked some of her long blonde hair behind her ear as a waitress came over with her food.

"Thanks." she said, but the woman was already gone. She sighed and dug in, reveling in the burn of buffalo sauce in the back of her throat.

Emma got back to her apartment around 10. She would have stayed out later, but she didn't feel like reconnecting with old friends, and she didn't think those friends would be too fond of her for just leaving like she had without a word. Her tall, brown, boots were ditched at the door and her red leather jacket was thrown over the couch as she headed down the hall and fell into bed. A part of her missed this life: alone, no one to worry about or to worry about her, doing whatever, whenever; but she missed Regina and Henry and her parents, and well, really everyone so much more. She would be able to stay here for about 3 days before she couldn't stand it anymore. Emma Swan had a family. That was still a foreign thought to her. She had lived her whole life alone, but now she had a son, parents, and the best wife anyone could ask for. The past tear of her life had been more than an orphan could have ever asked for. Emma felt her eyelids getting heavy from all the driving she had done and soon fell into the kind of sleep she used to before moving to Storybrooke; light enough not have any dreams, but deep enough to get some rest.

The next morning, Emma woke up at 10:30 am and actually had to ask herself if her phone was right. It was and she almost called Regina just to brag about ho early she's gotten up on a Saturday. Emma froze.

"Shit… I never called Regina..." Emma ran a hand through her tangled hair and quickly sent Regina a text.

**Sorry I never called you last night kinda got in and fell asleep **Emma groaned at her own stupidity.

"Regina's gonna kill me..." She muttered as she got up and went into the bathroom to brush her teeth. She was still in the bathroom when she heard her phone vibrate across the hall and practically dove for it, her face still covered in minty green foam and the toothbrush still in her mouth.

**Emma Swan I'm going to kill you. **Emma laughed out loud and almost choked on her tooth brush.

**No you won't you love me too much ;) **Emma stuck her phone in her back pocket and headed back into the bathroom, spit out her toothpaste and rinsed. Walking back out into the living room, she threw her jacket and boots back on, not bothering to change her clothes even though she had spent all of the previous day in them and then slept in them, and did one more once over of the apartment, seeing if she missed anything, which she hadn't. Emma locked the door one last time and pounded down the steps to the front door, her duffel thrown over her shoulder. She threw her old, black bag into the back seat once more and headed down to the real estate agent who had bought the apartment from her to drop off the keys and some papers, but as she should have expected, there were more. Emma sat in the small office for almost two hours signing her name on this line and initialing on that one. Finally, at a quarter after 1:00, she headed off on her way. The drive home was slow, dreary, and uneventful. Emma stopped for a big lunch at a diner in a small town just off the highway mostly because she was hungry, but also because she didn't think it was fair that she had been forced to skip a meal. While she was eating, she saw that she had gotten several texts from Regina.

**I'm serious, you're in big trouble.**

**I was worried sick.**

** Emma Swan you had better not be ignoring me. **Emma smiled and texted back.

**Regina while I may be sheriff in Storybrooke there's nothing I can do out here to keep myself from getting arrested****I was driving chill **Emma could almost feel the anger seeping through the phone as it vibrated again with Regina's text back.

**Do NOT tell me to "chill" ever again. Also, your sass is not appreciated. **Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head smiling as she finished and paid.

It was getting dark as Emma finally pulled into the home stretch of her trip and she could slowly start to see the lights of Storybrooke lighting up for the evening. Emma smiled and sped up a little, wanting to get home to her family. The sun had just finished setting as Emma crossed the bright orange town line. She had just passed a diner nestled in the trees when she thought she saw another car leaving town on the other side of the road. _Who the hell is leaving? _No matter how strange it seemed to Emma that someone was trying to leave when they knew they couldn't comeback, she turned down her headlight from the high beams so as to not blind them. But as Emma got closer, the car stopped and darted across the road in front of her and Emma realized it wasn't a car, but a deer. She slammed on the brakes and lost control, skidding into the roadside ditch, landing sideways. Emma was thrown against the windshield, cracking it with her skull and hung limply from her seat belt, trying as best as she could to get herself free. The deer ran off, specks of blood covering its body. Emma felt herself losing consciousness and did the last thing she knew she could do. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed 9-1-1 with shaky hands. She had barely hit the call button when she blacked out and the phone hit the window with a crack.


	2. Chapter 2

It was 3:00 in the morning when Regina's phone started ringing. She groaned, still half asleep as she groped blindly around her nightstand for her cell phone, which was still playing its default ring tone annoyingly loud.

"Hello? Who is this?" she asked. The irritation in her voice made the sleepiness less evident.

"Regina, it's Whale." She groaned.

"What the hell could you possibly want? In case you haven't noticed, it's the middle of the night. I know I called about rescheduling Henry's appointment, but why couldn't that wait unti-"

"Emma's here." Regina sat up so quickly she nearly gave herself whiplash.

"What's wrong? Is she okay? What happened?" Regina fired off questions as she got out of bed and walked into the still pitch black room and didn't even bother to turn on the light as she started getting dressed, the phone pressed her her ear with her shoulder as she struggled into a pair of dark grey dress pants.

"We don't know. She… I think it'd be best if you just came in."

"I'll be there in five minutes." Regina hung up the phone and finished getting dressed in a black shirt with a blazer to match her pants before she went and got Henry up, not bothering to get him dressed before getting her son to stagger into the car. Regina got in the driver's seat and started the engine. Before they pulled away from the house, Regina turned around and looked at her half-asleep son.

"There will be no questions from you, understand? I don't know what's going on so just sit tight and I'll tell you things as I see fit. Understand?" Henry nodded and leaned his head against the window to go back to sleep as Regina turned back around, backing out of her driveway. She sped to the hospital as fast as she could without breaking the speed limit too too much. Regina wasn't going to break the law, no matter how early in the morning it was or what was happening. She pulled into the first parking space she saw and got out, gripping Henry's hand tightly as she all but ran inside. Only a few lights were on; Storybrooke didn't have too many patients that needed around the clock care, if any. Whale was waiting for Regina by the front desk and he quickly escorted them to Emma.

Regina stopped outside the door and she watched as Whale went in to tell Emma she had a visitor.

"Henry? Why don't you stay out here, alright?"

"But I wanna-"

"Henry, stay out here." Regina's voice gone mother made Henry sit down in one of the chairs in the hallway and watch Regina tentatively step into the room.

Emma was lying in the hospital bed, her eyes half shut. Regina couldn't tell if it was from the pain or the drugs or the black eye she sported on the left. She was cut and scraped and torn up all over and she had three IV's in her arm. Her hair was a tangled mess, although there had been an obvious attempt to get the blood rinsed out of it. Her leg was supported in a hammock-type structure hanging from the ceiling to elevate it in its cast and her left arm was in a bright pink cast all its own.

As Regina appeared in the doorway, Emma slowly turned her head to look at her and Regina could see that she had a giant gash on the side of her head that was still bleeding through its bandages. Regina swallowed hard as she walked in, trying not to cry.

"Emma, oh my god..." Regina immediately went to her wife's side and ran a thumb over the gauze wrapped around her head. "What the hell happened?" Regina sat down on the edge of the bed. Her eyes drifted to obvious bulge underneath her hospital gown. "And how many ribs did you break? You know Whale told you to be careful about breaking anymore after the last tim-"

"I'm sorry, but wh... who are you?" Emma interrupted and Regina froze. Regina gave Emma a look that told her she didn't quite believe her. When Emma didn't break out into a goofy grin right away, Regina got angry, bolting up from the bed.

"Emma! This is not the time to be playing games! You're hurt and I need to know what happened!" Regina dug her nails into her palm so hard that when she stopped to pick at her thumbnail she found her hands turning red.

"Please don't yell at me..." Emma's voice was quiet and almost scared sounding. "I really don't know who you are." Regina deflated like a balloon that someone had shot with a gun and she took a step backwards.

"I'm...I'm your...wife." Emma blinked once, processing the new information. Regina's mouth fell open slightly, but she bit her lip to close it and she took a step back forward. "And… and Henry's out in the hall." She motioned with her head. "He's worried about you."

"I'm sorry...I don't- who is Henry?" Tears that Regina hadn't even noticed had been gathering in her eyes were suddenly spilling out and falling down her face in fast, warm streaks.

"No! No… please… You said you'd come home OK! You promised!" Regina didn't make an effort to wipe away the tears as she ran her hands through her hair and looked up at the ceiling like it would have answers. "I knew I should have gone with you..."

"I'm sorry…" Regina's head dropped back down to look at the blonde lying in the bed, her brown eyes red and puffy. Emma's looked the same but in a different way; Emma's were from hospital drugs to ease the pain and exhaustion from what Regina knew had been a long, sleepless night.

"Don't be. This isn't your fault in the slightest. I really do hope that you feel better soon." Regina didn't say anymore. She picked her purse up off the floor and walked back out into the hallway. "Come on Henry, let's go."

"But Mom, I wanna go in and see E-"

"No. You can't. And you probably won't for a long time."

"Why?" Regina didn't answer because she didn't have one and they walked to the car in a tense silence. "Mom why can't I go and see Emma?" Henry asked again as he got in the back seat and Regina in the driver's seat. She paused for a moment, and Henry thought that maybe she was going to ignore his question again, when she suddenly whipped around in her seat and Henry could see the new tears falling down her still red face.

"Because she has no clue who we are and probably never will!" Henry froze and Regina immediately regretted saying anything at all as she watched tears start to fall down her son's heartbroken face.

"But she's the savior… she's gotta remember… How else is she gonna bring back all the happy endings?" Regina turned around and tried to wipe the tears from her face, but new ones kept coming.

"Henry, stop please."

"But Mom-"

"Henry I said enough!" Regina snapped. Henry opened his mouth to protest, but when he heard Regina sniffle, he shut up and settled into the blanket he had brought with him for their early morning car ride. After a minute, Regina started the car and pulled out of the hospital parking lot. She only ever drove with one hand on the wheel because the other was constantly wiping tears out of one eye or the other so she could see the road at all.

Regina Mills' heart was shattered, and there was only one person who could fix it. And that person had no idea who she was.

* * *

Emma was released from the hospital almost four months later, having healed, for the most part, from her injuries that had no explanations. Regina hadn't been to see her since the first night Emma was admitted into the hospital and she had forbidden Henry from going to see Emma as well; she made sure everyone who worked in the hospital knew it too. Although Regina knew it wasn't going to do anyone any good, she had Dr. Whale email her with regular updates on Emma's condition and had known all week that she was being released that day; Henry had even baked Emma's favorite cake with her to celebrate.

Emma had made her way into Granny's one afternoon and sat down at the bar. Regina was there as well, standing at the end talking to Tinkerbelle. Henry was sitting in a booth, talking with Archie and Belle, both obviously trying to get some sense of how he felt about Emma's situation and how he was doing. Regina had asked them to; Henry often told at least one of them things that he would have never told either of his mothers. After they had visited the hospital, Henry had shut up about the whole thing. He didn't want to talk about Emma and he didn't want anyone to talk about her around him; Regina had gotten concerned. Both Archie and Belle stood up saying their goodbyes to Henry. Both gave Regina a look that said they were sorry. Regina nodded back and made a mental note to call Archie later about their conversation.

"Henry..." Regina groaned and took a sip from her mug of coffee.

"They come up short too?" Tinkerbelle asked. Regina nodded and stared at Henry who was drumming his fingers on the table as he scrolled through his phone.

"Maybe if I-"

"No. If you go interrogate him then he'll know something's up." Tinkerbelle nodded and glanced down the counter.

"You did notice that she's here, right?" Regina's jaw set and she sighed.

"Yes, I did. Thank you."

"Why don't you go over and talk to her?"

"The last time she saw me I screamed in her face and cried like a toddler."

"Then go apologize. That gives you a reason to go talk to her."

"It's not happening. Drop it."

"Regina, you can't spend the rest of your life just watching her. She's not going to get any better if you don't try to help her."

"And what if she doesn't want my help? What if she hates me? She has every right to..."

"Regina, I'm sure she doesn't hate you." Regina sighed and took a long sip from her coffee and they sat in silence for almost a minute.

"I just... It's so painful to be so close, yet so far away. All I want to do is help her, but I don't know how…"

"Regina, I told you; just go talk to her." Regina nodded and cracked her knuckles with her thumbs. Tinkerbelle smiled and gave her friend an encouraging look. Regina took a step forward before freezing as she saw Emma glance her way.

"I can't do this."

"Alright." Tinkerbelle sighed and put a hand over Regina's. "Alright, maybe not today. But soon."

"I just wish there was a way I could fix her, bring her memories back."

"Regina, you know-"

"I know. If she saw magic she would leave..." Regina droned in a bored, annoyed, and hopeless tone, having heard the same exact speech and her dreams crushed by a dozen people since Emma's accident. She sighed and finished her coffee. She waved Ruby down and pointed to her mug. The girl nodded and grabbed the pot, filling the beat up, white, ceramic again. "Thank you." Ruby smiled and nodded. "Oh, and Ruby?" She turned again. "Can you get Henry a hot chocolate? See if it'll cheer him up?"

"Of course Regina." Ruby smiled and walked away. Tink put a hand on Regina's shoulder and smiled sadly.

"You know she'll be alright Regina. She's the savior; she'll remember one way or another." Tinkerbelle patted Regina's shoulder twice before putting some money on the counter for her coffee. "Sorry, but I have to go. You'd be surprised how amny meetings it takes to be a fairy in this land." They both laughed.

"Should be a _real _fun time." Regina added as she heard Tinkerbelle laugh again before the little bell over the door jingled as she left. Emma looked up at the noise and then around the room, her eyes landing on Regina. The brunette glanced away awkwardly and bit her lip, not wanting to talk to Emma; she was too afraid she'd cry again and she was _not _going to let anyone see her cry. She gathered up her coat and her purse and got Henry. He hadn't finished his hot chocolate, but Regina didn't care as she walked her son out quickly, her head down.

Emma looked after her, staring at the door even after they'd left.

_I didn't scare her did I? Or maybe I'm not supposed to talk to her… Maybe we're not friends?_

Emma gasped and her eyes widened as she suddenly recognized the woman as the one from her first night in the hospital.

_Should I go after her? Does she even want me to? Probably not if she left like that when I looked at her…_

She shrugged it off and went back to her hot chocolate. The frustration of not knowing anything was killing her. She felt like everyone else was in a big secret that she was never told. What was probably worse was the look on a person's face when she had to tell them that she didn't remember anything and that she didn't know who they were. Watching their faces crumble killed her inside. She went to take a sip from her mug, but she realized it was empty.

Emma pouted slightly and flagged Ruby down.

"Hey Emma, you want another?"

"Um, no. I was just wondering if I could get my check."

"You don't have one."

"Uh… yeah I do." Ruby grinned.

"I mean I got you covered." Emma frowned.

"No. I can pay, you don't need to do that."

"I want to. It's the least I can do for my friend." Before Emma could say anything else, Ruby winked and walked away to take someone's order. Emma sighed, surrendering, and left, the bell above the door jingling as she left.

As Emma walked down the sidewalk, she watched the school empty itself of the last of its' teachers for the day, including the woman who was giving her a place to stay. They caught each others' glance and she waved Emma over.

"Emma!" Emma smiled and walked over. "How are you?"

"Fine. Well, as fine as I can be..." She smiled and both women laughed for a moment.

"Well, I should be getting home. I've got laundry to do. I'm really looking forward to it." Mary Margaret made a disgusted face and smiled.

"Ya know I can help you with stuff like that, if you want." Emma offered.

"Oh no, you don't need to. It's not that bad, really." Emma nodded and decided to drop it for the moment. "So, where are you headed?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Oh, I don't know. I might head to the library, maybe the pier."

"Do you think you'll be back in time for dinner?"

"Definitely. Last night was so delicious!" Emma smiled, remembering the amazing pasta and meatballs they had had the night before as her friend got into her car. She rolled down the window immediately.

"So I guess I'll see you later Emma."

"Yes, you will..." Emma simply couldn't place her name and it drover her insane. She had tried so hard to not forget the name of the woman who was giving her a place to stay.

"Mary Margaret." The brunette smiled sympathetically and Emma smiled back gratefully.

"Right. Mary Margaret. Sorry. See you later!" Emma smiled apologetically again and took a step back so that Mary Margaret could pull out her parking space and drive away.

Once Mary Margaret was gone, Emma kept walking down the street, but found she had no desire at all to go to the library or the pier, so she turned around and went back to her yellow bug. She decided to just go back to Mary Margret's apartment since she had nothing else to do. When she got there, the door was open and she let herself in. Mary Margaret was cleaning the kitchen counters and Neal was screaming in his bouncer. Emma loved the name Neal, but she didn't know why. She left her boots and jacket by the door, as she had been asked to and went over to Neal who looked up at her for a second before going back to his screaming.

"Hey Emma." Mary Margaret tried to say over her screaming baby.

"Hey." She looked at Neal, who continued to scream and cry. Emma bit her lip and glanced at Mary Margaret, who was still trying to clean, then picked Neal up and started bouncing him on her hip.

"Hey… hey why are you so mad? Come on little guy, everything's fine. Everything's alright..." Emma kept cooing at him and brushing his hair with her fingers until Neal finally stopped crying and fell asleep in her arms. Mary Margaret looked up, shocked that Neal had stopped screaming.

"You… you got him to fall asleep..."

"Yeah… I guess."

"I tried for the longest time, but he wouldn't go down. I figured he'd tire himself out eventually." Emma smiled and laughed a little, still swaying with Neal.

"I guess that's one way of doing it..."

"You're very good with kids, a natural even." Emma beamed.

"Thanks. In the orphanage as a kid, I was always taking care of the babies because the adults were busy potty training toddlers and making sure the other kids didn't spear each other or do drugs or anything like that. Once you turned about seven or eight they thought you could handle yourself and help out around the house." Mary Margaret froze from cleaning and turned around slowly, her mouth open and stared at Emma who was playing with Neal's hair absentmindedly as she stared at the wall. Emma looked over when she heard Mary Margaret's brush stop scrubbing again, confused.

"Is... something wrong?" Emma sounded concerned, worried that she had done something wrong.

"You... you remembered something." Emma thought back on what she had said for a moment, then her face lit up as she realized.

"I did, didn't I? I did it!" She grinned and looked at Neal, kissing his forehead. "I remember something." Emma proclaimed in a sing song voice. Mary Margaret grinned, pride beaming from her face.

"Can you remember anything else Emma? About your childhood, about anything?" Mary Margaret asked. She walked away from the counter and took her rubber gloves off. Emma made a face, obviously thinking hard as she laid Neal down in his crib.

"No... I don't have anything..." Emma's face fell and Mary Margaret stepped over to comfort her, squeezing her hand.

"It's alright Emma. It'll come back to you, it just takes time." Emma nodded and brushed some hair behind her ear.

"I'm gonna go out, alright? I just wanna think a little." Mary Margaret nodded.

"Of course."

Emma smiled and grabbed her jacket as she headed out. As the door clicked shut behind her, the tears Mary Margaret had tried to hide started to fall down her face. She sat down on the couch and looked over at Neal, who was still sound asleep in his crib.

"She has no idea... no clue..." Mary Margaret put her head in her hands and started at the floor, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Just have to believe… just have to believe..." Mary Margret repeated to herself several times before she finally stood back up. "Alright..." Mary Margaret wiped the tears from her face and stared at the apartment for a minute before going back to cleaning.


	3. Chapter 3

Regina fell into the couch with a big bowl of popcorn as Henry put a movie into the DVD player. She smiled as Henry joined her, slipped under her arm, and immediately started digging into the popcorn. Regina made a face and let out a little, breathy laugh.

"Is this how all teenage boys are? Constantly gorging themselves on whatever they can find?"

"Pretty much, yeah." he replied stuffing his mouth full of popcorn as if to make a point, although most of it didn't actually make it into his mouth, but fell down the front of his shirt and landed in a pile in the middle of his crossed legs.

"Hey! Messy much?" Regina teased.

"I'm not making a mess!"

"Just remember, I'm going to make you clean it all up after." Henry gave Regina look and started eating the popcorn off the couch. Regina reached down to get some popcorn for herself and found the bowl emptier than she expected.

"I think I'm going to have to start going to the grocery store more than once a week." Regina teased again.

"I would have no problem with you doing that." he replied, completely serious. Regina sighed as she smiled and hit play on the remote. She sighed contentedly. This was how it was supposed to be. Their family just hanging out on a Friday night. Their family... She bit her lip, thinking of Emma. This wasn't their family; at least, not their whole family. Emma was supposed to be sitting on her other side. Emma was supposed to be playing with her hair absent mindedly, hitting Regina in the face with it.

_Where is she? Is she __OK__? I'm sure __Snow took her in… right? I mean, why wouldn't she? What if she thought I was going to take her in? No, she knows about what happened at the hospital..._

Regina had basically avoided Emma at all costs since that night at the hospital. It was her way of apologizing for losing it in Emma's face, but she wasn't taking it as well she she could have been. Henry looked up at Regina as a single tear rolled down her face.

"Mom? You OK?" Regina snapped out of her head and looked at Henry, then at the TV. She figured that they were almost halfway through the movie by now. She smiled sadly back at Henry.

"Yeah. I'm fine sweetie. Thank you." Henry beamed back at her and returned his attention to the movie.

A little while later, the movie had finished and the TV was playing the title screen music over and over, as both Regina and Henry had fallen asleep. They had slumped over and Henry's head was resting on Regina's stomach and Regina was curled up against the arm of the couch. Suddenly, Regina was woken up to the sound of the doorbell being rung. She looked up confused; no one ever came around this late. No one was ever out this late. No one ever came around. She dismissed it as being a part of her dream, but as she went to lay back down, she saw a flash of blonde hair in the windows that bordered the door. She got up carefully not wanting to wake Henry up, covering him in a blanket, before heading to the door. She opened it and Regina's eyes widened. To her surprise, an all too familiar blonde was walking down the path away from the house. She turned around, surprised that anyone would ever answer their door this late at night.

"Hi. I'm-"

"I know who you are." Regina said, still stunned.

"OK... well, I wanted to apologize for the other night in the hospital. I was kind of...rude." Regina's expression softened.

"Oh dear, you're alright. I... overreacted just a tad." She smiled. "I'm just glad you're alright." Emma nodded, swallowing.

"I um... I was hoping you could give me some answers. You might be able to tell, but I'm really, really confused."

_Oh god… What am I doing? It's the middle of the night! She probably wants to go back to bed, she's probably worried we'll wake Henry up. Stupid, stupid, stupid…_

Regina nodded.

"I understand. This must be a lot for you."

"In the hospital you said I was your wife." Emma blurted out, then immediately cringed. Regina's eyes closed. Maybe she should say no. It was getting painful for her already. Emma would understand, wouldn't she? No, this wasn't Emma. Her Emma was loud and outgoing. Obnoxious at times but also adorable. This Emma was shy and reserved. Always hesitating, never taking chances. "Regina? Are you alright?" The brunette's eyes opened again.

"Yes, I'm terribly sorry..."

"This is a bad time, isn't it?"

"No- I mean… I was going to say why don't you come inside? We have a lot to talk about."

"You sure?"

"Of course. Come along."

Regina led Emma inside and Emma sat at the kitchen table while Regina started a pot of coffee, before sitting down across from Emma. Her hands were folded under the table, knuckles white as she fought the urge to reach out for Emma's.

"So you have some questions for me?"

"Yes, I um..."

"Would you rather I just start from the beginning?" Regina saw Emma's face flash confusion for half a second and Regina immediately corrected herself. "I'm sorry, I just thought that might make it a bit easier on you... unless you have more specific questions..."

"No, no… why don't you do that."

"Alright then, where would you like me to start?" she asked lightly. "There's a lot to explain and I would rather not overwhelm you..."

"Could you explain... us?"

"Us?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm not, I don't-"

"You don't think you're gay."

"...Yeah." Regina sighed.

"Well, to be honest, neither of us did at first either. When you came to town, you and I couldn't s_tand_ each other and I was determined to get you to leave and leave me and Henry alone. When you-" She stopped. She couldn't tell Emma she was the savior, she would think her crazy. She would leave. She stood up suddenly and poured some coffee into two mugs.

"Who's Henry?"

"My… our son. It's… complicated." Regina smiled to herself as she set a mug down in front of each of them. She then retrieved the cream and sugar, setting those on the table as well.

_What do I say? Lie? Not tell the whole truth? Maybe I should just skip that part… No it'll just confuse her even more..."_

"When... things started to change, we... went through some things." Regina explained carefully as she sat back down in her chair and took a sip from her black coffee. She watched as Emma added so much cream and sugar Regina could visualize the thick layer waiting for her at the bottom of the cup and it made her cringe in disgust. "And it brought us closer together. I had thought that I would never be able to love again, but there I was, falling for you. We had both been hurt more times than we should have been and we were both terrified." Regina smiled sadly back at the memory.

"Well, we obviously didn't care."

"You didn't." Regina smiled sadly. "You barged in when I didn't want you there. You ended up hugging me so tight that you put me back together." Regina wiped a lone tear from her face. Emma reached across the table and took her hands.

"Regina, I'm sorry about all this and I'm sorry you lost someone so close to you. But I'm getting better. Today I was talking to Mary Margaret and David and I remembered something about one of my orphanages." Regina's face lit up.

"Really?"

"Really." Regina beamed and Emma beamed right back. That was when Henry walked into the room, rubbing his eyes from having just woken up.

"Mom? Why didn't you-" He froze and stared at Emma.

"Henry, I-" Regina began, but it was too late. His arms were already wrapped tightly around Emma.

"You're back! I knew you would remember, I knew you would!"

"Henry, she doesn't." He looked up at Regina, then at an apologetic Emma.

"What?"

"Henry, she... doesn't have her memories back. We were just- I was explaining some things to her." He backed away slowly.

"Oh. I...um... sorry..." He said dejectedly. Then suddenly. Henry took off like a rocket and ran up to his room and slammed the door shut. Regina closed her eyes and sighed.

"Well now you've met Henry..."

"He seems great."

"I'm sorry about that, he can be a little-"

"It's OK, I get it. He wants his mom back." Regina nodded. There was a minute of awkward silence as Emma finished her coffee. "I should probably go, let you talk to him."

"Are you sure?" Emma saw Regina glance concernedly up at the ceiling, biting her lip.

"Yeah. Your kid's more important; I'll be fine." Regina looked curiously at her. Maybe the old Emma and the new Emma weren't so different after all. Regina walked Emma to the door and they said their good nights. Regina then headed upstairs, trying to be a little louder on the stairs to that Henry would know she was coming. She knocked on the door lightly.

"Go away." came a small, sad voice. Regina sighed and walked in anyway, finding Henry wrapped up in the blankets on his bed, obviously crying. She sat on the bed and rubbed his back.

"It's OK Henry-"

"No it isn't!" He flipped over and sat up quickly. "Now she's gonna think I'm some weirdo. I ruined the one chance I had to have _any_ Emma back."

"She doesn't think your a weirdo sweetie. She understands; you want your mother back." That hit him hard and he started crying even harder.

"I do. I really, really do. When I saw her sitting there, I thought that maybe, just maybe, she was back..." His sobbing began to slow, but tears were still falling silently down his face as he shook. Regina pouted and pressed his head against her chest, slowly petting his hair, letting him cry. She was trying not to cry herself. She needed to stay strong for her son, but she wasn't sure she could. She knew they had both been wanting nothing more than for Emma to flash her toothy smile and wrap Henry up in her arms; for her to be herself again.

"I know darling… I want her back too sweetie." Her eyes closed as her own tears started to fall.

* * *

Emma sat in Regina's driveway, staring off into space. She thought about the look on Henry's face, the way his beaming smile crashed from the heavens back to earth with seven simple words. She knew she was hurting them, that it caused them pain to see her and talk to her and live with her the way she was. She had to fix this. She looked at the clock on her dashboard; it read 8:24 am. The town would be starting to open for the day if it hadn't already. She knew where she had to go. She pulled out of the driveway in the little yellow bug that she had been told was hers and disappeared down the street.

Emma parallel parked on the road in front of Gold's shop. She took a deep breath and got out, walking in with as much confidence as she could after hearing the terrifying stories. He was standing behind the counter dusting... well, something, Emma wasn't really sure what. The little bell above the door rung as his head popped up and he smiled.

"Ms. Swan. What a pleasant surprise." She bit her lip.

"Hello. I've been told you can help people."

"I've been known to on occasion... for a price." She winced. Why did that sound so familiar?

"I... I've had an accident and-"

"You need your memories back so you can remember who you are." Emma blinked.

"How did you-"

"I know _everything _dearie." She bit her lip again.

"So you can help me?"

"Sadly, no. There is no way to bring back your memories. That would require magic, which is something that I simply don't have, that no one has." Emma felt that pang again at the back her mind, like that should mean something to her. She sighed.

"Well, thank you for answering my questions. I hope you have a nice day."

"You too dearie." He replied as she walked out. She got outside and looked up and down the sidewalk, finding no one. She decided to leave her car where it was and started walking back toward the rest of the town. She decided to go to Granny's and get breakfast, since the coffee Regina had given her was not going to keep her full until lunch. She walked into the restaurant, which was already busy, and sat a booth. Ruby soon came over to take her order.

* * *

Regina had finally coaxed Henry out of bed around 10:00 am, which made him extremely late for school. Regina got him to school just in time for 4th period. She walked him in and explained to the attendance lady that their alarm clocks had not gone off that morning. The woman marked him in the system as on time, but Regina wasn't sure if it was because of sympathy, or because she was mayor and had the power to ruin her life, not that she would anyways, not over something so petty. She left, but decided to go to Granny's first instead of the office. She hadn't had time to eat that morning because of the rush to get her son to school and if she was going to be late she might as well be extremely late. It wasn't like her boss was going to fire her.

When she walked in, heads perked up to see who it was, but were soon bent back down to a newspaper or a smart phone. Regina saw Emma sitting alone and stopped in the doorway, watching Emma gaze out the window at a little bird staring back at her. Regina bit her lip and made a split second decision, walking over to the booth.

"Mind if I sit?" Emma looked up.

"Not at all Regina." She smiled and took her feet off the opposite seat, where they had been resting. She sat and Ruby soon brought over Regina's usual; black coffee, two eggs sunny side up and four triangles of toast. She also brought Emma the hot chocolate with cinnamon and whipped cream, along with french toast and home fries that she had ordered. They sat in silence for a moment, eating, before Emma spoke.

"I went to go see Mr. Gold this morning." Regina froze.

"Why?" Her chocolate eyes were wide and her face was pale. She tried to relax a little when she realized how demanding her voice had sounded.

"To see if he could help me." Regina bit her lip.

"Could he?"

"No." she said sadly. Regina let go of the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. She knew Gold. He would take advantage of the fact that Emma didn't remember and make her regret it once she did.

"You shouldn't mess around with Mr Gold. He's not very... trustworthy. He says he'll do one thing, but actually do another." Emma nodded.

"Duly noted. It felt all creepy going in there. I didn't even know what he was holding when I walked in." Regina smiled and Emma let out a breathy laugh. "What is it?" Emma asked as she noticed that Regina was watching her curiously.

"Nothing much. I just noticed how you eat your french toast the same with or without your memory. Your eating the middle and leave the outside edge for last."

"Doesn't everyone do that?" Emma asked completely seriously and Regina started to laugh.

"You said that too, the first time you asked me about it." Emma grinned, glad she could make Regina smile, even if she wasn't herself.

"So, how's Henry?"

"He's fine I suppose. It took quite a bit to get him out of his room this morning but I did it. He was scared you thought he was, and I quote 'some weirdo'." Emma giggled.

"What'd you tell him?"

"That you certainly did not think that and that you understood that he just wants his mother back." Emma nodded, approving. Then she came up with an idea.

"Regina?"

"Yes?"

"You know, if he wants to hang out with me, I'd be up for it. I mean, I've got nothing going on." Regina grinned.

"I think he'd really like that, if you're sure you're alright with that."

"It's really no trouble at all. I'd really enjoy it, actually."

"Yeah. Why don't you pick him up from school today? He gets out at 2:00."

"Alright. Do you need him home by a certain time?"

"Before dinner would be great." Both women smiled. Emma went to pay, but Regina stopped her. "I've got it."

"No, I couldn't..." Regina gave her a look that said 'don't mess with me'. "Are you sure?"

"Yes dear. It's fine." Emma nodded, thanked Regina reluctantly, then left. Regina left soon after and got into her car, sighing. Her head leaned back against the head rest. She had made it through, still emotionally in tact. She blinked back into reality and buckled herself in, before driving to the office.

At 2:00 on the dot, Emma was sitting in her yellow bug, waiting for Henry to get out of school. As kids started pouring out the doors she opened hers and stood up, looking for Henry. She spotted him and waved.

"Henry!" she called, drawing him over.

"Emma? What are you doing here?"

"Your mom thought it might be fun if we did something today." He looked up at the woman standing in front of him. Would it be as fun as it always had been?

"That's awesome!" Emma smiled. Henry threw his backpack into the back seat and climbed into shotgun as Emma got in the driver's side.

"So what do you want to do?"

"I dunno. Your mom told me that you and I used to go out for ice cream."

"I have _no_ problem with ice cream" Emma smiled, pulled away from the curb and started down the street. Henry pointed her into the parking lot and they got inside. Henry ordered rocky road and Emma ordered chocolate chip cookie dough. They walked outside and sat on a bench.

"You like cookie dough?" Henry looked confused.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well I mean...before, ya know, you couldn't stand cookie dough ice cream."

"Really..." There was an awkward silence between them as they finished eating. Emma finally broke it by asking about school that day, receiving the standard teenager 'fine' and decided not to push too hard considering she felt she had to right to. Emma drove him home in silence, so she turned on the radio, possibly making it even more awkward. She pulled into Regina's driveway and Henry jumped out as she followed close behind. He sneaked inside the house and up the stairs into his room, closing the door. Regina sighed as she heard his quick footsteps on the floor above her head.

"How did it go?" Regina asked as Emma walked into the kitchen.

"We went for ice cream."

"That's good. He loves ice cream."

"It was a little awkward. No one really said much." Regina sighed.

"I had a feeling that could happen. I'm sorry."

"No, it was fine. He's a kid, what are you gonna do about it?" Regina nodded.

"Do... you want to come inside? I have some of the best apple cider you've ever tasted." Emma laughed.

"Well that's a little egoistical, don't you think?" Regina smiled.

"I've been told it's true." Emma raised an eyebrow.

"I may just have to test that myself." Regina grinned and moved to the side, letting Emma into the house from the porch. They went into Regina's study and closed the door.


	4. Chapter 8

Emma and Regina sat in Regina's study, each their own glass of cider. Emma sat on a small couch and Regina sat in a cushiony chair.

"Regina?"

"Yes dear?"

"Will you tell me about me?"

"Excuse me?" Regina asked, confused and slightly surprised.

"I want to know about me. Who I used to be. I want to know who I should be." Regina was stunned. She tucked some hair behind her ear.

"Well... like what?"

"I mean you told me about us, but what about the rest of me?"

"The rest of you..." Regina bit her lip. She couldn't tell Emma about magic, she would run away. What else was there? "You mean like your favorite color and stuff?"

"Yeah, like my favorite color and stuff." Emma smiled.

"Well, your favorite color was red. You wear that red leather jacket all the time. Everyday, everywhere, no matter what. And you loved your car. I could not get you to trade it in for something, anything safer. I suppose you had memories with it, I don't know. I never asked. You loved roller coasters and you used to drag me on those death traps. I think it was mostly because you wanted to be able to hold me while I was scared. You loved scary movies too and sunsets and picnics in the park with Henry and I." Regina found herself crying. She hadn't realized how much she missed her wife. Emma went over and sat next to Regina, hugging her.

"Its OK Regina, really. You didn't have to tell me all that."

"Yes... I did."

"No-"

"Yes I did Emma. It's your past you have a right to know." She sniffled. "You have to know..." Emma suddenly understood.

"You wanted it to spark something, didn't you?" Regina nodded sadly. Emma held her more, resting her head on her shoulder until Regina had cried herself out. When she had regained herself a little, Emma sat her up.

"Come on, I didn't come here to cry." She wiped a stray tear on Regina's face. "What do you want to talk about?" Regina looked at Emma. She shrugged her shoulders and sniffled, collecting herself. "Well, I've got an idea."

"Would you mind sharing it?" Regina laughed a little.

"Have you ever played twenty questions?"

"I think everyone on the planet has dear." Emma smiled.

"Good, because that's what we're playing." Regina smirked.

"Emma, it's a children's game..."

"I know." Regina smiled.

"It continues to astonish me that with or without your memories you can still manage to be so childish." Emma winked.

"We don't have to guess. You could just answer the questions." Emma suggested.

"That would be considered just a normal conversation dear."

"Alright then. Let's just have a 'normal conversation'." She smiled as she made air quotations. Regina smiled back. "I'll ask the first question." Regina waited. "What's _your _favorite color?" Regina laughed.

"My favorite color is..." She thought. "Black." Emma nodded.

"A little dreary, don't you think?" Regina smiled.

"Black's always been my color."

"What's your favorite food?"

"Coffee. Definitely coffee."

"Coffee doesn't count as a food!"

"Then what does?"

"Food. Not a drink." Regina smiled.

"Alright then... lasagna, especially mine." She added, smiling. The questions went on like that for an hour or two, filled with laughing and revelations. The questions went back and forth a few times, both warming up to the other more and more. There were several times where they had to be careful of their volume so as not to wake Henry who was sleeping upstairs. It got to be around one in the morning when the two women realized that it was getting to be late and they both had to go in to the office in the morning. Regina walked Emma to the door, both women grinning widely.

"Thanks for having me over tonight. It was fun talking with you."

"Thank you for helping me laugh a little. It's been a while. I actually think my jaw is sore." Regina said as she giggled a little. Emma smiled at Regina and Regina smiled at Emma.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around." Regina nodded, still smiling.

"See you around."

"Have a nice night... or morning... or something" Emma called over her shoulder smiling as she left and headed for her car.

Regina smiled.

"You too dear." She watched until she got into the little yellow car, then closed the front door. She leaned up against it, sighing heavily. Emma pulled away from the driveway still smiling as she set off down the road.


	5. Chapter 9

Regina woke up the next morning to hear Henry banging around in the kitchen and groaned, rolling over. He really needed to be quieter in the morning. No one, ever, should have to up at the un godly hour of 5:30 am. She woke up once again at 6:15 am when her alarm went off and she sighed, silencing it. She got up and made the bed before heading off to shower. She got herself ready and made some coffee, pouring it into a travel mug before heading out to the office for a day filled with meetings and paperwork.

Emma woke up at 8:45 am, being gently woken by Mary Margaret, just to tell her that she was going to get home late that night due to parent – teacher conferences. Emma grunted her understand she the other woman left. The blonde rolled herself out of bed and threw on her usual jeans, camisole and red leather jacket. She ran a brush through her hair before deciding she should go out and find something to do with herself. Emma walked into Granny's for breakfast and sat next to Belle who, of course, had her nose in a book, but looked up to see who it was. When she was who it was she perked up. She put in her bookmark and closed it, setting it aside.

"Hey, am I disturbing you?"

"No, not all. Please, sit." The blonde grinned and sat on the stool. Belle bit her lip. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm pretty good, I guess. How about you?"

"About the same." She hesitated asking her next question, but she did anyways, the want for the answer burning away inside of her. "Have you remembered anything?"

"No... I haven't. Sorry." Belle could see it bothered her and it did. She shook her head.

"It's alright Emma. I shouldn't have asked." She decided to ask something easier.

"So what have you been up to?" She tried. Emma smiled.

"Absolutely nothing. That's why I decided to go out today. To find something to do. I guess I'm going to be here awhile so I might as well make myself useful." Belle smiled. There was the old Emma, never content being still even for a second.

"Well, the sheriff station is always looking for recruits. David's the only working there right now and I guess he's been a little backed up with saving cats from trees." They both laughed. "Well, I gotta fly. Those books aren't going shelve themselves." Emma smiled and nodded as both women laughed.

"Alright."

"And remember, if the sheriff station thing doesn't work out, I could always use some help over at the library." Emma smiled again.

"I don't think anyone could be as good at the Dewey decimal system as you are." She teased.

"You could learn." Belle left some money on the counter. "See you later!" She called over her shoulder as she left. Emma finished drinking her coffee and paid. She smiled at Red who was cleaning a table as she left. She got into her bug and headed over to the station, where David had his feet up on his desk, playing geometry dash on his phone.

"Damn it!" He shouted as he died once again. Emma started laughing and his head shot up. His phone disappeared and his face turned bright red. "Sorry about that..."

"No, don't apologize..." She was still smiling.

"Alright enough poking fun Emma." He smiled. "What's up?"

"So, I was talking to Belle this morning in Granny's." He nodded. "And I told her about how I'm looking for something to do and she mentioned that you were all alone over here and that you might not mind some help. So I thought that maybe..." David smiled.

"Yes, you can help me out. I would love it actually." Emma grinned.

"Great! When do I start?" He bit his lip, smiling.

"Did she really not tell you?"

"Did who really tell me what?"

"Belle. You used to be sheriff Emma." Her eyes widened.

"Really? You mean..."

"I am reinstating you as sheriff." He took the star off his uniform and handed it over. She ran her thumb over the face of it before slipping it into her pocket. She smiled.

"Thanks David, really."

"Don't worry about it Emma, honestly." he smirked to himself. "Because this," He pointed to a massive pile of papers sitting on the desk his feet had once been resting on. "is now your responsibility." He started laughing as she face palmed herself.

"You're a real jerk, you know that?" She joked and punched him lightly on the arm. He threw up his hands in defense.

"Hey! You're the one who wanted the job!" She smiled.

"I know. And I appreciate it, honestly" She then sat down at the desk to figure out what the heck she had signed up for.


	6. Chapter 10

Emma finally left the station at 7, refusing to leave until she had finished her work, despite David's persistent encouraging for her to finish it the next day. The sun was setting as she drove, bouncing light off of her mirrors irritatingly into her eyes. She groaned and was grateful when she finally turned into the driveway of Mary Margaret and David's apartment. She clomped her way up the stairs, strangely exhausted after having not done much all day. Well, that was relatively speaking. Thinking was much harder for her than running a mile or doing some pull-ups. She entered quietly, assuming that Neal would be asleep, but he wasn't. Mary Margaret was just setting him down for bed. They smiled at each other and Emma headed into the kitchen. She grabbed a soda and some pretzels and sat on a stool at the counter. Mary Margaret soon joined her, sitting softly in an identical stool.

"Hey."

"Hey." came a tired reply.

"Rough day at the office?" Mary Margaret laughed softly at her own joke, knowing it had been day one for the blonde.

"More than you know. Thinking is hard, did you know that?" Mary Margaret giggled again.

"It turns out, you're going to have to think you're whole life." Emma groaned.

"Really? That sucks." She play-whined, making both of the start to laugh as David came down from upstairs.

"Hey, are you two having too much fun without me?" Both heads turned.

"Nope, no fun at all. Just sitting here, having a horrible time without you." Mary Margaret teased. He sat next to his wife and wrapped his arm around her waist. "I didn't expect you to actually finish all that work on your own Emma." He said apologetically.

"It's alright, really. It was a nice change from the usual drag." They both smiled as Emma stood up. "But at the same time, I am wiped. I'm gonna go to bed." She set her dishes in the sink and headed up.

"Goodnight." came from Mary Margaret.

"Night." sounded from David. They heard the door to Emma's room shut and David sighed. "I really do feel bad about her finishing all that..."

"It's fine honey, she wanted to, so let her do it." He sighed and nodded. They sat in silence for a few moments before Neal stirred a little. Mary Margaret got up to check on him and soothe him. Once he had fallen back sleep, she came back.

"I think I'll go to sleep too. Neal will be up in a few hours anyway." Her husband nodded.

"I'll come in in a second." The short brunette headed off to their bedroom and David sat staring into space for a few minutes. Soon, he got up and went over to the crib, pressed a kiss to his son's forehead and followed his wife off to bed.

The next morning David and Emma went into the station together, finding it useless for them each to take their own car if they were both commuting to and from the same place. Emma and David sat at their respective desks waiting for a call, if any, to come in. When one finally did, David answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello David. It's Regina. I've heard Emma has become Sheriff?"

"I suppose you've heard correctly."

"Well you have been sitting on quite the pile of work that I need to complete several tasks. I was hoping that a new sheriff would mean that the department would have turned a new leaf."

"Meaning?" Regina sighed angrily.

"Is the paperwork done?"

"Yes."

"Then why the hell isn't it on my desk?"

"It can be in about 5 minutes."

"Very well David. The clock is ticking." And with that, she hung up, leaving David to listen to the dial tone before he hung up the phone himself.

"Hey Emma?"

"Yeah?"

"That was Regina. She wants all that paperwork you did like right now. Do you want to bring it over, or me?"

"I can do it." She smiled.

"You sure?"

"Yeah no biggie." She packed it up into a few folders and piled them on her desk. David tossed her the keys to the cruiser. "Be back soon." The blonde promised as she grabbed her stuff and headed out. Throwing the folders in the back of the car she headed over to the Town Hall, where Regina's office was. She headed inside, but was stopped by the secretary.

"What business do you have?" She asked blandly.

"I'm here to drop off some paperwork for Regina."

"Very well." She pressed a button on an intercom. "Mayor Mills, the sheriff is here to see you." She released the button.

"Let her in." came a lucid voice from the other side. Emma got a go ahead nod and she went in, folders tucked under her arm. Regina was seated at her desk, writing something. She heard Emma enter and took off her reading glasses, folding the arms on top of each other and setting them on her desk. She stood up and walked around her desk.

"Hello Emma." She smiled a little.

"Hey. I heard you threw a fit over these?" She held out the folders. Regina smiled and looked down for a moment before taking them.

"I may have displayed the more mayoral side of myself while on the phone, yes." Now it was Emma's turn to smile.

"Why aren't you more like you were the other night?"

"What do you mean dear?"

"You were laughing and smiling and happy. You lead everyone else to believe that you are a cold hearted monster that is incapable of feeling any emotion except for anger." Regina sucked in a breath.

"Because dear, then no one is this town would listen to me if I was such a teddy bear all the time." Emma nodded, knowing that wasn't the whole truth but didn't want to pry too much. They both found themselves making eye contact with the other for much too long. Regina looked away first, followed by Emma following suit, blushing vividly. "Well, thank you for the papers but I should probably get back to work."

"Yeah, me too. I have to save such a crime-ridden town." She smiled and Regina returned it, heading back to her desk. With a final goodbye Emma left and got in the cruiser and headed back to the station.

Regina sat at her desk and banged her head on it, cursing.

"Goddammit! How could I let myself do something so stupid?" She sat for a few moments silently yelling at herself. She finally put herself back together and tried to distract herself with work, but it was useless. The same question kept ringing in her head. _How could I let myself fall back in love with Emma Swan?_


	7. Chapter 11

When Regina finally got out of work she was exhausted. She drove home on the empty, dark roads of Storybrooke. She pulled into her driveway with a sigh. She got out and unlocked the door, dropped her keys into a dish by the door, took off her heels and placed them neatly next to the entrance. She walked inside.

"Henry?" She called. "You home?"

"Yeah Mom." came a voice from upstairs. He soon surfaced from his bedroom and went down to meet his mother. "I was just on my computer."

"Did you do your homework?"

"Yes." he said, tired of being asked the same question each night when his mother came home. Regina smiled.

"Good boy." she tousled his hair. "Now, how about some dinner?" Her son nodded. They headed into the kitchen together and Regina went to see what was in the cupboards. She pulled out some chicken and pasta. "How about chicken alfredo?"

"Works for me." Henry shrugged. Whatever his mom made, it was always good.

"Do you want to start on a salad?"

"Sure." He went into the refrigerator and pulled out some salad fixings. Next came the special salad bowl that they always used. He oiled the wooden bowl and set it on the island as his mother worked at the counter. He snapped and threw some lettuce leaves in before cutting tomatoes, a cucumber and the like. Regina put the chicken in a pan and the pasta in a pot with some salted water and set it to boil. Henry finished the salad and put it on the table as well as setting the rest of it. Soon the pasta was done It was served and the two of them sat down to dinner.

"So, how was school today?"

"It was fine. Mary Margaret made us prove that triangles are triangles. Isn't it proof enough that they have three sides?" Regina laughed

"Apparently not."

"I mean is this really that necessary? When am I going to use that in real life? Especially in Storybrooke? Its not like I can leave..." Regina smiled.

"At least you don't have to learn the name of every subject you will rule over, or how to ballroom dance, or-"

"OK, OK, I get your point!" Henry smirked. "You don't have rub your point in my face."

"Oh, but it's so much fun..." Regina fake whined.

They talked for the rest of dinner and after they cleaned up Henry went upstairs to Skype his friends and play some machine gun, shoot – em – up game that Regina didn't quite approve of but allowed anyways. He could be doing worse, she always reminded herself in an attempt to justify the violent games in her head. Regina looked around for something to do, but there was nothing. She had cleaned over the weekend and the laundry was done. She sighed and sat on the couch, flipping aimlessly through the channels. She gave up quickly, there was never anything on TV anyways. Then, her phone vibrated. She picked it up and checked it. It was a text from Emma. She read it, wondering why she texted her.

_Hey Regina, it's Emma if you couldn't tell. _Regina smiled and texted back.

_Hello dear. Any particular reason as to why you are texting me?_ She waited a few moment before the phone buzzed again.

_Oh, sorry. Are you busy right now?_ Regina's thumbs flew over the screen.

_Oh, no dear I'm doing absolutely nothing. _It took a minute for Emma to reply.

_Great, do you wanna go out? _Regina was stunned.

_Like, on a date? _Emma texted back almost immediately.

_Oh, shit no sorry. I mean like going and chilling because we're both bored as fuck. _Regina sighed. No matter what memories Emma had, her language was the same.

_Language dear. And yes, I would like to "chill" with you. _She smiled as she sent it. Any Emma time was a good time, she supposed.

_Great. I'll be there in 5._ Regina sighed and set her phone down. She went upstairs and brushed he hair and threw on some perfume. She might as well look halfway decent. She walked down the hall and knocked on Henry's door.

"Yeah?" came from within. She opened the door and stepped in.

"Hey Henry? Will you be OK alone for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure, why? Where are you going?"

"Emma wants to "chill" with me." She said using air quotes around 'chill'. Henry grinned.

"She doesn't even remember and she still likes you."

"What?"

"Mom, come on. We both know she's doing this because she likes you."

"Henry, she's doing this because-"

"No mom. Stop. Don't doubt it. Just go have fun." He smiled and went back to his game. Regina sighed and closed the door again, heading downstairs as Emma rang the doorbell. She put on her heels and answered it, grabbing her purse.

"Hey." said Emma.

"Hello Emma." Regina smiled. "So, where are we going?"

"Well, I was thinking The Rabbit Hole."

"Really?"

"We can go someplace else," Emma said quickly. "I just...that's the only place I know." Regina laughed.

"That will be fine dear." Emma beamed.

"Alright! Let's go!" Regina smiled and laughed inwardly at her little kid excitement. It reminded her of Henry when he was small. Now she knew where he got it from. They arrived after a tense road trip for Regina, who had always hated Emma's little yellow death trap but held her tongue for this trip, she didn't want to start the night off bitterly. They walked inside the loud, dark building, grabbed a table in a corner and ordered some drinks.

"So..." Emma said a little loudly, so as to be heard over the roar of chatter.

"So." Regina replied in the same way. They sat in silence. She sighed. This was getting awkward. Why had Emma even asked her to go out in the first place if they were just going to sit here? Emma looked at Regina. The brunette was looking off into the crowd of people, sipping her drink. Emma slowly moved and touched Regina's arm to try and get her attention and she jumped, turning. Emma gasped as her glass slipped from her hand and spilled all over her. She sighed in frustration.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry! I was trying to get your attention, but I didn't want to startle you..." Regina smiled weakly.

"It's alright dear."

"Let me help you clean up."

"It's fine, really."

"No, it's the least I can do." Regina nodded, sighing and following Emma to the small bathroom in the back. Regina grabbed a paper towel and wet it, starting to dab at her blouse. Emma shook her head and took it from her. "I'll do it." She said as she crouched down and started working on the stain. Regina watched her closely, with almost sad eyes. Her hand had started to move to touch Emma's arm but she pulled it back before she did so. She took a deep breath as Emma finished. "Well, it's the best I can do... sorry about that."

"I've already stated several times that it's OK dear. But if you don't mind, I think it's time for me to take my leave." Emma sighed sadly.

"It's alright, I get it." The pair left the bar quickly and in silence, Emma acting even more awkward than usual, memories or not. They rode in the car in silence as well, the quiet like a weight on both their shoulders. When Emma pulled into Regina's drive way, Regina moved to get out.

"Wait." Regina sat back into the car.

"Yes dear?"

"I'm sorry for ruining tonight."

"Oh Emma, you didn't ruin tonight."

"Yeah I did..." Her face dropped and she took the blonde's hand.

"Emma." Her eyes flitted up to meet the brunette's. "Tonight was fine. Much better than spending the night with a teenage boy." She smiled. "It didn't need to be perfect, we were just... hanging out." The words caught in her throat. She smiled. "We should do it again some time." Emma smiled a little and nodded.

"Have a good night Regina."

"You too Emma." The brunette got out of the car and walked to her door. Emma waited until she got inside and then pulled away from the house. Regina kicked off her shoes and dropped her purse by the door. She sighed and walked over to the mirror, bracing herself on the small cabinet below it. She looked into the mirror and blew some hair out of her face. Her eyes were sad and tired. _How could I have been so stupid? After what just happened? Stupid, stupid, stupid._ She thought as she banged her head against the wall.

"Mom?" Regina's head perked up. "Are you home?"

"Yes dear, I'm downstairs."

"How did it go?" She sighed. She had some things to figure out, and her son might be just what she needed.


	8. Chapter 12

"What?" cried Henry as he paced around his room.

"Sweetie please don't get mad at me..."

"Mad? Why would I be mad? This is great!" Regina looked confused.

"Henry, darling, this is not great..."

"Yes it is! Because if you're in love with Emma then you can get her to fall in love with you and then you two can kiss and break the curse because True Love's Kiss!" he spoke fast, getting himself all worked up.

"But Henry, this isn't a curse. This is a real illness Emma has."

"Oh. Right." his face fell as he collapsed onto the bed next to his mother. Regina rubbed his back.

"It's OK sweetie. We'll think of something." They sat in silence for a few minutes, both thinking about Emma. Regina looked over at the digital clock sitting on the nightstand next to her son's bed and sighed. It read 10:00 pm.

"Come on Henry. It's late. You should go to bed." he looked up from the floor ready to argue but when he saw his mother's signature 'don't try me' face, he got up reluctantly and trudged off to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Regina sighed and went into her own room, looking at herself in the full length mirror hanging from the closet door.

"What's happening to me?" she asked herself quietly, running a hand through her hair. Henry finished up and she went into the bathroom to get herself ready for bed as well. When she came out, makeup off and face washed, Henry was already in bed with the lights out. Well, most of them. She went in and made him turn off his phone and actually go to bed. She then went into her own room, crawled under the covers and turned out the light. As she lay in bed, she couldn't fall asleep. How could she? Emma was on her mind.

Meanwhile, Emma was back at the Charming residence, talking with Mary Margaret while David put Neal down.

"Emma, you can't blame yourself..."

"Yes I can. Regina already lost me once, I can't even imagine how hard it must be to have me walking around town all the time. And then I asked to hang with her? What was I even thinking?" She had started to babble and Mary Margaret pulled her back in.

"Emma." The blonde stopped talking and looked at her friend. "Do you love her?" She nodded slowly, biting her lip. Mary Margaret nodded. "Well I know Regina and I know that she is never going to get over you. And I know that she still loves you and I'm sure she loved going out with you last night because she got spend time with you. You may not be her Emma, but you still have her smile and her laugh and her roughness around the edges and no matter what, she's just going to fall in love with a slightly different Emma." Emma took a moment to absorb what she had just been told. She sighed, closing her eyes. When she reopened them, Mary Margaret was looking at her intently, waiting for her to say something. They sat in silence for a few moments, before Emma finally spoke.

"You really think that this is a good idea?" She asked quietly, almost scared.

"Yes Emma, you just have to trust me." The blonde took a long deep breath.

"Alright...I'll...I'll do it. I'll go after Regina." Mary Margaret's face lit up and she grinned hugely.

"Yay! You two are going to be so happy again!" She hugged Emma tight, surprising Emma. She slowly leaned into the hug and then hugged back.

"I hope you're right about this..." Emma mumbled to herself as she pulled away. "I'm going to go to bed. It's been a long day." Mary Margaret nodded and David gave her a two fingered salute as she went up. She stripped down to her camisole and panties and crawled in under the covers and nestled her head amongst the plethora of pillows. She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. After a while, she heard Mary Margaret go to bed and she saw the lights go out downstairs. She sighed and closed her eyes again. She tossed and turned for hours before finally giving up on sleep. She couldn't, not while Regina was still on her mind. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand, threw on some pants and silently slipped downstairs to make some hot milk in the Keurig. She checked her phone and decided to text Regina thinking that maybe she couldn't sleep either. She texted "hey" and left the phone on the counter not expecting a response. She set a mug under the spout and waited for it to finish before stirring some cinnamon in as well. Emma ran her hand through her long blonde hair and sighed, turning and leaning against the counter. As she took a sip of her milk, her phone lit up. It surprised her as she quickly set the mug down and picked up the phone.

_No Emma, I can't sleep either. _The blonde was taken aback. She just knew?

_How did u know? _She texted back.

_The only reason that you would ever text me at 1:00 in the morning would be if you couldn't sleep. _Emma smiled a little.

_Ur right..._

_ Come over to my house. We can be __insomniacs__ together. I'll start some water for tea._ Emma's eyes widened. Go over to Regina's house? Now? Should she? Was that like, OK? She had invited her... Emma made up her mind

_B there in 5. _Emma left her forgotten milk and pulled on her boots and leather jacket, grabbed her phone and keys. She was about to leave when she remembered something. She went through the drawers looking for a notepad and a pen. She found them and quickly scribbled something down, barely legible. She finished and headed out the door as silently as she could, making sure to lock the door before she left.


	9. Chapter 13

Emma showed up at Regina's front door and didn't even need to worry about knocking on the door because Regina was waiting in a robe and slippers.

"I didn't want you to wake Henry up, no offense." She whispered as she let Emma in.

"None taken." The blonde replied as she unzipped her boots and left them by the door along with the rest of her things, but she kept her phone with her. They went into the kitchen and Regina closed the door, leaning against it and sighing. Emma looked at her concerned.

"You alright?"

"Just tired." Emma gasped.

"Then why did you have me come over? You should go to sleep. I'll go." She stood up to go.

"Emma stop." Regina stepped forward and put her hand on Emma's shoulder having her sit down. "If I go to sleep I end up wide awake anyways, it's no use." Emma smiled sympathetically. Regina went over to the stove and the moment the kettle began to whistle, she took it off and poured two mugs of water and added a tea bag each.

"Can't stop thinking?"

"Something like that..." She sat across from Emma and gave her a mug. The blonde took it gratefully and sipped it.

"Mmmm. I'm not usually a tea person, but this is really good."

"Thanks...it's earl grey." There was an awkward silence between them that involved looking around the room anywhere but at each other, and the tapping of fingers on the counter. Emma finally broke the silence.

"Why did you really invite me over here Regina?"

"Wh...what do you mean?"

"Regina I mean that I don't think you've ever invited anyone to come over at 1:00 in the morning for tea." The brunette bit her lip. Emma took notice. "See?"

"There was a reason that I couldn't sleep Emma..."

"And what's that?"

"I was thinking about tonight, our 'chilling'."

"Yeah?" Emma sounded hesitant, scared almost.

"I had a really great time with you Em...ma." She stumbled over Emma's name, almost using the nickname she had for the blonde. _You're not her Gina. This isn't your Em. _

"Really? You did?" Regina smiled and nodded. Emma beamed. Maybe she hadn't messed up as much as she thought she had.

"Emma...I...we...you...I'm..." She couldn't spit out what she wanted to say and it was driving her insane. _It's three words Regina, it's not that hard._ Emma looked at the other woman concerned.

"Regina?"

"Emma I'm in love with you." Regina blurted. Emma's eyes widened.

"Wh...what?"

"I know you heard me Emma." Regina said softly, her eyes focused on the blonde.

"But...but I'm not..."

"I know...you're not _my _Emma... I'm confused too. I've had so much heartbreak I wasn't sure I could take much more and then you had your accident... and I thought that I was done. And yet, you made me fall in love with you again. That's why I couldn't sleep. I was thinking about tonight at the bar. What you did is exactly something that the old you would do. That's when I realized it." Emma's mouth was hanging open slightly. Her eyes were wide and she found herself staring at Regina.

"Regina... I-"

"You don't have to say anything. You can't feel the same way about me..." She turned and looked out the window over the sink sadly.

"But Regina I do." She spun around and gasped.

"Y...you do?" Emma nodded.

"I may not be _your _Emma, but I'm sure as hell going to try." Regina began to grin as she ran over to Emma and wrapped her arms around the other woman's neck hugging her tightly. Emma was startled at first, but slowly hugged back, resting her head on Regina's shoulder. They stayed like that for awhile before Regina pulled away, looking up at Emma.

"Do you want to go and try to sleep again?" She asked half playing, half serious. She knew Emma wouldn't want to. Emma smiled and nodded. Regina raised an eyebrow.

"Really? That's not the answer I was expecting."

"I would love to." Regina took her hand and brought her to her bedroom. She closed the door behind them so that when Henry got up for school in a few hours, he wouldn't wake them up. Regina took off her robe revealing her nightie and kicked off her slippers leaving them neatly beside the bed. Emma followed suit and settled into the fluffy pillows. Regina moved so that she was pressed tightly to Emma's side. The blonde's arm held her there tightly as she sighed and pulled the blankets around them. Regina closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep, her hand resting on Emma's stomach. Emma smiled and closed her own when she knew Regina was sleeping and fell asleep as well.


	10. Chapter 14

Regina was woken up early, well before 6:00 am, the next morning to the sound of Henry's feet quietly padding back and forth from his room to the bathroom as he got ready for school. She sighed and pulled her pillow over her head so as to muffle the sound. She fixed the covers and adjusted herself, turning onto her side, looking at the blonde next to her. It made Regina smile, watching Emma sleep. Her monstrous bed head was fanned out all around her head, knotted and matted and frizzy. Regina barely suppressed a laugh as she pulled a piece of the blonde mess from Emma's mouth. She stirred a little, flipping over so that she was hugging Regina's torso, her head settled firmly again Regina's chest. The brunette smiled and decided not to fight it and risk waking Emma up, settling back down into the bed. Her head hit the pillow and she sighed happily and closed her eyes, soon letting sleep take over once again.

Emma woke up and squinted at the light streaming in from the window. She groggily grabbed for her phone at the night stand and found it, hitting the power button. She was instantly blinded by the screen and she proceeded to drop the phone on her face.

"Ah shit.." she cursed softly, not wanting to wake Regina. That was before realizing that she was alone. She looked around for Regina and didn't see her but heard the shower running in the bathroom. The blonde slid her body up the bed and reached for her phone again. The lock screen read 10:30 am. Well, they had slept in... a lot. She sighed and unlocked it, seeing that she had several text messages. She opened the app up and started to read. They were from both Mary Margaret and David, both obviously concerned. With messages like, what does going out mean?, where are you going?, when are you coming back?, and who are you going to see?, Emma had to laugh. She texted back 'I'm fine I'll be home soon' and clicked the phone off again. She threw her phone onto the bed and got up, putting her jeans and her leather jacket back on before heading downstairs.

Regina heard Emma starting to move around and smiled, washing her hair. She rinsed the shampoo out and continued to condition and finish up bathing. She stepped out and grabbed a towel, drying her hair as best she could and wringing out any excess water. She then wrapped the towel around her body and stood in front of the mirror and started getting ready for the day. She twisted her hair up into a tight bun before tweezing her eyebrows. She then proceeded to cover her entire face, neck and ears in foundation, followed by her eyelids in a light brown, almost golden color. She smoothly applied two sweeps of eyeliner to her lids and mascara to her lashes. She continued by penciling in her eyebrows and adding some blush. The finishing touch was some bright red lipstick. She heard a buzzing noise and knew that Emma's phone was in the other room as her own was always on silent at night. She smiled, satisfied and leaned away. She didn't hear Emma's heavy footsteps coming up the stairs she stood. Regina opened the door to the bathroom and walked out, just as Emma was entering.

Emma walked back into the bedroom looking for her phone. As she entered, Regina came out from the bathroom, wearing only her towel. Emma saw Regina as Regina looked up and saw the blonde. Emma gasped.

"Shit! Sorry Regina!" she said as she averted her eyes and turned, going to leave.

"Please, don't worry about it. It's not like there's anything here you haven't seen before..." the brunette said as both blushed.

"Well I don't remember it!"

"Yes, well, I do dear, very clearly." the brunette said as she went to her closet, looking for an outfit for the day. Emma blushed harder.

"I'm just... gonna..." Emma stuttered as she turned to go. As she did, her phone buzzed again on the bed and Regina smiled again before getting a red dress off of one of the hangers in the closet and walking over to place it on the bed.

"Aren't you going to check it Emma?"

"I... um... well..."

"Go ahead. I don't mind." the older woman walked over to her dresser and pulled out a bra and panties. Emma tucked some hair behind her ear and watched Regina as she set them on the bed. They were matching blood red with black lace. The brunette walked over to the closet and started to look through her endless supply of black pencil skirts, blazers, dress pants, and dresses. Emma sat on the bed as Regina picked a red dress and laid it on the bed.

"I'm going to get dressed now." Emma gulped.

"Oh, OK... I'll.. I'll just go downstairs..."

"You don't have to... I mean... if it will make you more comfortable you can, but I'm really not all that concerned..."

No, no it's OK. I'll go downstairs and start breakfast." Emma said as she slowly back out of the room. Regina nodded and once the blond reached the door she all but bolted down the stairs. Regina sighed and closed the door.

Emma placed her hands on the counter, fingers spread and let her head fall forward and stare holes into the dark granite. Her eyes closed for a moment before they opened again and she looked up.

"Oh god..." she said to the stainless steel refrigerator before sighing. "And now I'm talking to a fridge. Great." She opened it and grabbed the orange juice, pouring some into a glass. She drank the whole thing in one go then poured some more and put the juice back. The door clicked shut as Emma sighed and ran her hands through her long hair. She looked at herself in the reflection "What the hell am I doing?" She shook her head to clear it and looked around the pristine kitchen for something to do.

Regina sighed and sat on her bed, still wrapped in the towel. She sighed and put her head in her hands, her elbows resting on her thighs.

"What am I doing?" She asked herself. "This isn't my Emma..."

_ But that doesn't matter... _said the little voice in her head.

_But it should! _Retorted her logic._ She's not your Emma! She never will be your Emma! _Regina found herself crying uncontrollably as she felt water dripping onto her chest. She sighed and stood up to get dressed.

Emma found herself walking down the hallway to the foyer, looking at all of the pictures hanging on the walls. Emma, Regina, and Henry, Emma and Regina, Regina and Henry, Emma and Henry, Henry's birthdays, it went on and on. Emma smiled at the pictures, seeing how happy they all were. They, not her. She felt the pang in her chest as she realized that should never be this Emma. She could never be a wife, a mother. She sighed sadly as she heard Regina's feet padding around on the floor above her. She wiped a tear away and went back into the kitchen, biting her lip.

Regina finished getting ready and looked at herself in the mirror. Her red dress was tight, but not too tight, with a red eyelet hole so that her cleavage could just poke out enough. She smiled at herself just a little sad and huffed, slipping into her black heels. She opened the door and headed downstairs.

"Emma?" She called. There was no response. She frowned and came off of the stairs. "Emma?" she called again. She turned the corner and went into the kitchen. There was no Emma to be found. All that was there was a messily written note lying on the counter.

_I'm sorry Regina but I can't do this. I can't be your Emma. I saw all your pictures and I can never be like her. I don't know how to be a wife, much less a mother. I'm sorry for your loss, but you're better off without me. _

A single tear rolled down Regina's face as she read the note. She wiped it away and sniffled. Emma was gone, and she wasn't planning on coming back.


	11. Update

Hi all!

I just wanted to say a few things because that's the kind of person that I am. First off, thank you for reading this fic! This is one of my favorites to work on and I'm proud of it? I guess I am lol. Second of all, I would just like to point out that I have gone back and fixed a lot of the chapters. Some of them were just full of errors and I cannot believe that I even posted them. I also changed some of the content. Not anything hugely plot changing, just little things, kind of just filler scenes, like Emma going to a bar to get food and stuff like that, you could not go back and re-read it and e completely fine storyline wise. Ummmmmm, that's really about it. Please keep reviewing because I really do love them.

Thanks,

MistyArturo


	12. Chapter 15

Emma got in her yellow bug and pulled out of Regina's long driveway, still wondering if leaving the brunette and breaking her heart was the best decision.

_Of course it is! _She thought. _Regina deserves someone better than me. Better for her to get over her Emma rather than try to fill the void with... with me. _Emma sighed as she turned onto Main Street and avoided several groups of people who clearly did not know what cross walks or looking both ways before crossing the street were. She maneuvered her way through and finally managed to get herself parallel parked in front of Mary Margaret and David's apartment. She tromped up the stairs still a little bothered from that morning. The blonde flipped some hair out of her face and proceeded to dig through her pockets to find the key she was given. Of course it was in the last pocket, the one one on the inside breast of her jacket that she always forgot was even a place where she put things, that she checked and she finally got the door open. Mary Margaret and David were sitting at the counter and their heads whipped around when they heard the door open.

"Emma! You're back!"

"Yeah... it's me..." the blonde said a little awkwardly. Mary Margaret smiled at her and walked over, hugging her.

"Are you OK? Where did you go?"

"I... I was over at Regina's." Mary Margaret smiled.

"Did you have a nice time?"

"Yeah..." Emma bit her lip and hoped that would be enough. Mary Margaret sighed wanting to ask more questions but understood that Emma didn't want to talk. "I'm gonna go up and take a shower." Emma declared.

"Alright." Mary Margaret replied. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you," Emma turned around, halfway up the stairs. "I threw all of the towel into the wash, so you're going to want to get a new one from the closet. Emma nodded and went up. She grabbed a towel from the closet in the hallway just outside the bathroom door and went in, locking the door behind her.

Mary Margaret sighed went back to sit next to her husband at the counter. She smiled sadly at her and put his hand on her back.

"She'll be fine Mary, you know that."

"I'm still worried. She seems... I don't know. She came home and she was sad. I think something's up." David gasped.

"I have an idea." Mary Margaret perked up.

"What is it?"

"Well, there's this amazing invention that I've heard of." Mary Margaret's eyes narrowed as she immediately caught onto the sarcasm in her husband's voice. "Apparently they've been using it for thousands of years to communicate between people. It's called _talking_ and _having a conversation_." She punched him in the arm. "Owwwww!"

"Your sarcasm isn't helping!"

"It is. I know it is. I can hear the little gears turning in your head." Mary Margaret frowned and got up, walking into the rest of the kitchen. She rummaged through the drawers and pulled out a pen and a piece of paper. She scribbled down several things and handed it to her husband.

"Here."

"What's this?" he asked looking at it.

"It's stuff that I need you to do this afternoon."

"What kind of stuff is this? Find a dragon and slay it? You didn't even try Mary..."

"You know what I mean. Just, go out for a little while, alright? Please?"

"What's in it for me?" he grinned an eat shit grin.

"How about the satisfaction of knowing that your daughter is emotionally stable after losing her memories and is starting to slowly regain them?" David looked as if he was think about it for a moment, then made a face and shook his head.

"Nope. Not good enough for me." Actually, it was, but it was just so much fun to mess with his wife like this.

"I'll make you a cake." she said blandly, obviously getting irritated.

"Done." David got up, grabbed his coat and his keys and left, closing the door behind him. Mary Margaret sighed.

"I swear..." She ran her hands through her short hair before Neal started crying. She sighed again and went over to soothe her son.

Regina had made a travel mug of coffee, grabbed a granola bar and headed out to her office to try and get her mind off of the fact that Emma had left her.

_ She didn't leave you, moron! You were never a thing in the first place!_ Regina sighed, pulling into her parking space in front of the office. _But you did other say you loved the other..._ She walked in, heels clicking and set herself into work mode. She made calls, filled out paperwork, went to meetings, and even made a woman cry, but that was all in a day's work for Regina Mills. She finally sat down at her desk for more than a minute around 4:00 pm, setting her elbows on her desk and running her hands through her hair with a sigh. Emma was back on her mind. She turned her head slightly and looked at her phone, wondering if she should call her.

_No, don't do that, give her space. But what if she leaves? I wouldn't be able to go after her. Should I call Henry? No why on earth would I ask a 13 year old for advice? God... Maybe she'd like it if I call, maybe I could convince her to come back. She wouldn't believe me... But still... _Regina moaned out loud from her internal battle as her head fell onto the desk with a thud in defeat.


	13. Chapter 16

Emma got out of the shower and grabbed her towel, drying her long hair as steam floated to the mirror. She looked at her blurry reflection and sighed as she wrapped the towel around her body, picked her clothes up off the floor, grabbed her phone from the counter, and opened the door and walked to her room. She grabbed a new set of clothes, consisting of another pair of jeans and a red t-shirt, throwing them on. Emma looked at herself in the mirror, then specifically at her long blonde hair, then at the brush lying on the dresser. The brush stayed where it was and her hair untouched.

_I'll deal with it later. _She thought as she sat on the bed putting on a pair of socks before heading back downstairs.

Mary Margaret heard Emma padding around on the floor above her and sighed. She got two mugs out of the cupboard and set them on the counter. Then came the slightly louder movement of the metal as Emma came down the stairs. Mary Margaret smiled at her and stepped closer to the counter.

"Well look at you, all nice and clean."

"Mary Margaret, stop it." Emma smiled a little before going into the kitchen herself and grabbing a glass. Her mother stopped her.

"I thought you might like some hot chocolate?" Emma smiled.

"Sure. And here I thought that I was gonna be all healthy and drink water." Mary Margaret laughed and got the hot chocolate off the stove and poured it into the mugs she had set out. Emma sat down in a stool and pulled one mug closer to herself, wrapping her hands around it. Mary Margaret sat across from her and did the same. They sat in silence for a few moments, neither making eye contact with the other, until Mary Margaret spoke up.

"Emma?"

"Yeah?"

"I was hoping we could talk."

"Well I was hoping someone would eventually, that was getting awkward." Both women laughed for a minute before Mary Margaret brought them back.

"I was hoping we could get a little more serious."

"Oh. About what?"

"You."

"Oh." Emma bit her lip and Mary Margaret took a sip of her hot chocolate then a breath.

"I'm worried about you Emma."

"Why? I'm fine."

"Not like that. You haven't remembered anything lately, and its worrying me."

"Mary Margaret, I'm fine, you really don't need to-"

"Yes I do Emma I'm your mother and I'm going to worry about you!" Mary Margaret said with a little more force than intended. Emma bit her lip, her eyes wide.

"Wh... what?" Mary Margaret realized what she had said.

"Oh... yeah..." Emma's eyes looked down.

"Why didn't you tell me?" her voice was quiet. Mary Margaret looked at her sadly.

"Because I didn't know how you were going to react."

"Well I think that it would have been nice to know that I was living with my family that's clearly messed up."

"And what on earth do you mean by that?"

"I mean that my parents are the same age as me and I have a baby brother." Mary Margaret held back a gasp, not knowing how to explain.

"We're not the same age, what are you talking about?" Emma laughed, clearly not amused.

"Alright, you don't wanna tell me. That's chill. I'll find out myself." Emma stood up and put on her boots and jacket, throwing her hair up into a messy bun with the hair tie that had been on her wrist. "I may or may not be back later."

"Emma please don't do this."

"What? Do you want to not tell me more things? Because I am not sticking around for that." she said as she grabbed her keys and left, the door slamming behind her, making baby Neal start to cry. Mary Margaret was holding back her own tears, her head falling against the counter. She sat there for a moment, sobs racking her body before she pulled herself together. She got up, her eyes red and went over to take care of her son.


	14. Chapter 17

Emma stormed down the stairs and out into the coldish afternoon air. The sky was slowly darkening, but she didn't care or notice. She got in her bug, slamming the door shut behind her and started it. Well, at least she tried to. She turned the key in the ignition ten or twelve times, jamming it forward with more and more force each time, but that car just didn't want to start for her. She finally stopped trying when her force could potentially snap the key and leave a part stuck in the little hole. She groaned and got out, slamming the door shut angrily. She ran her hand through her hair and leaned against the car with the other, sighing. Mary Margaret finally came down the stairs after her daughter.

"Emma-"

"Stop, I-" She was about to say something when a giant, black, bat came swooping down from the sky and nearly hit Emma with it's feet. The blonde screamed and ducked, as did Mary Margaret.

"Emma!" Mary Margaret

yelled as she ran around the car, still bent down, to her daughter. "Are you OK?"

"What the hell was that thing?" Emma asked, half yelling over the wind as she slowly moved away from Mary Margaret.

"I have no idea." Mary Margaret moved closer as Emma moved away, trying to get Emma to talk to her, but their attention was quickly drawn to Regina running out into the middle of the street, closely followed by Belle, Killian and David. Mary Margaret gasped. "What the hell does he think he's doing?" She ran over and grabbed David's arm. "David! What are you doing? You don't even have your sword, you're going to get yourself killed!"

"And so are you if you don't move!" David yelled as he pushed his wife to the ground as the bat come swooping back around, nearly grabbing Belle.

"All of you get the hell out of here before or I'll kill you myself!" Regina raged, never taking her eyes away from the sky. That shut everyone up and they all started to look around for a safe place. Killian was the one who finally decided to make a decision.

"Follow me!" He led Belle, David and Mary Margaret around to the side of a building that was slightly less out in the open from the coming attacks, but Regina stayed behind. Emma gasped as the bat made another turn around toward Regina.

"Regina, move!" she screamed, but Regina stayed. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Move!" but Regina didn't seem to hear her. Just as the bat began to soar toward her, Regina held up her hands and red light poured out of them, hitting the giant bat in the face. Emma's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she watched Regina preform her magic. After what felt like several minutes to Emma, the bat was finally driven away, flying far into the horizon. Regina turned toward the side of the building where Belle, Killian, David, and Mary Margaret were emerging.

"What the hell were you thinking? You could have gotten yourselves killed, or worse abducted! Then I would have gotten myself killed trying to save your ass!" Regina screamed, steaming with rage. Emma slowly stood up from behind her car and Mary Margaret was the first to notice and have the 'oh shit' look cross her face. One by one the same expression crossed everyone's faces except for Regina. Her mouth was open as she watched Emma step closer and closer, the blonde shocked, pissed and obviously scared. Regina bit her lip as Emma started to speak.

"What. The. Hell?"

"Emma, I-" Regina began.

"No. You're not going to talk, none of you are. Do you know why? Because every single one of you standing here has lied to my face." Emma moistened her lips with her tongue and took a breath. "I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I don't want any part of it." Emma shook her head as she turned and started to talk away.

"Emma, wait!" Mary Margaret stopped her. Emma turned on her heel and looked her right in the eye.

"Mom..." She started with enough sarcasm in her voice to stab Mary Margaret right in the heart. "I'm not staying. You're all crazy... or maybe I'm crazy," Another stab. "but I don't want or need any of this shit in my life." And another. "That... that thing," She pointed toward the horizon. "that just attacked us, was insane. I don't know about you, but I would rather live a full, long life. I'm not staying, end of story." And with that, Mary Margaret burst into tears and David went over to comfort her, before looking at Regina. She stepped forward.

"Emma, can we talk?"

"No, no we can't." Regina sighed.

"Then I'm really sorry that I have to do this Emma." She waved her hand and poofed the two of them away. They appeared in the basement of the hospital, both women inside the cell that once held Belle. With another wave of her hand, Regina locked the door so that Emma couldn't get out.

"What the hell? Let me go!"

"Emma I can't do that." Regina bit her lip.

"And why the hell is that?"

"The town needs you."

"This town doesn't need shit from me. And what the hell is even wrong with you? Where are you hiding the lights?" Emma sat on the cot in the corner.

"Lights?"

"Yeah, the red lights." Regina sighed.

"So that's what you've told yourself. Alright..." Regina went over and sat on the cot next to her. Emma moved away so that her back was against the wall. "I have a lot of explaining to do."

"Well you better start somewhere..." Emma replied, still very pissed off. Regina closed her eyes and sighed.

"OK... well, to start, I have magic." She made a little fire ball in her hand and Emma screamed.

"Oh my god put it out! What the hell are you trying to do, kill me?" Regina flipped her hand over and put it out. "You're insane!"

"Emma, I'm not."

"Oh my god... I slept with you... I drank your tea... of my god is that it? Did you drug the tea? Am I tripping right now?"

"No Emma your not." Regina replied with as much calm as she could muster before continuing. She tried talking to Emma for the next hour or so, before giving up and telling her she would be back later with food from Granny's. Regina poofed back to the Charming's appointment and near scared David out of his skin.

"Gods Regina stop doing that!"

"She's a lost cause. It's hopeless, she's not even entertaining the idea of magic."

"Regina! I will not have you giving up on my daughter!" Mary Margaret said indignantly. Regina huffed.

"Mary Margaret there's no reasoning with her! Last time she had a reason to believe that all of this was real. This time, she's got nothing. She's comparing this to real world things. She think I drugged her, that this is all some elaborate CGI compilation, that she's dreaming. Mary Margaret put her hand over her mouth.

"Well maybe if we-" David started.

"What part of 'there's no reasoning with her' don't you understand? Emma's not coming back!" Regina screamed. And in that moment, Regina Mills cracked. She screamed and paced and let her magic flare, making the lights flicker and various appliances sporadically turn on and off. "You don't think I tried everything? You're not the only ones who care about her!" Regina took a long, deep breath and straightened herself, regaining some of her composure. "We have to let her go. We can't keep her locked up down there forever." her voice walk calmer now, almost sad. Mary Margaret covered her mouth with her hand and David started to tear up.

"We can't... we have to do something." David choked out, but Mary Margaret stopped him.

"No... Regina's right David... we have to." He twisted and looked up at his wife, who looked at him sadly, before nodding to Regina. Regina nodded back and poofed away. She ended up just outside the door leading to the stairs to be led up to the Charming's apartment. She looked sadly at Emma's yellow bug. She held back tears as she waved her hand over it, fixing the engine, and hopefully anything else. She stepped forward and patted the hood.

"I take back everything I've ever said. I'd give anything to ride in you one more time." She then raised her hand and then slowly lowered it, opening the window with it. Regina closed her eyes and held her hand out, palm up and within a moment, a folded piece of paper was in her hand. She set it on the passenger seat before closing the window back up. And with that she stepped away, going back to Emma's cell. She appeared just outside the door and attempted to pull herself back together before magicking the door open. Emma looked away from the window and at Regina confused.

"I thought you said-"

"You can go." Emma was stunned.

"Wh... what?"

"Go, leave, put a thousand miles between you and Storybrooke. No one's going to stop you." Emma raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"My car isn't-"

"Your car is fine." Emma, still doubting, slowly stood up and pulled on her boots, which she had taken off so that she could sit criss cross apple sauce on the cot more comfortably.

"Well then, I'm gone." Regina nodded and stepped away from the doorway so that Emma could get out. Regina watched as Emma went up the steps and left the hospital and followed after a moment. The brunette watched as Emma got into her little yellow bug and started it up without a problem. Regina bit her lip and watched as she pulled away from curb and drive down the street. Regina stared and stared until she couldn't see the car anymore. She walked down the sidewalk a little ways, letting her heels scuffle as she went. She stopped herself on the side of the building, staring down the road where Emma had just disappeared out of her life forever. Regina turned the corner and leaned her back against the brick building. Slowly, she felt her legs giving out and she let herself slide down the side of the building. And as Regina Mills sat on the ground, hugging her knees, she broke down and cried harder than she ever had in her life. And in that moment, she truly knew what it felt like to have her heart ripped out.


	15. Chapter 18

Henry looked at the clock on his nightstand and sighed. It was almost 11:00 pm. His mother had told him that she would be home by 6:00 at the latest to make dinner. She had never come home and he had ended up eating ice cream and potato chips, because what teenage boy wouldn't? As each half hour interval had passed, he became increasingly worried. He knew Regina, she was always on time, no matter what. It was already dark by that point and he knew that she was going to kill him for going out that late, but he was worried. He pulled on his sneakers and went out into the cool air, on a mission to find his mother. He walked down the sidewalk, glancing around him for any sign of either mother or either of their cars, finding nothing. He sighed and kept walking, passing Granny's, not seeing either woman inside. Finally, he spotted Regina's car outside his grandparent's apartment and crossed the street and headed up the stairs. He knocked on their door and Mary Margaret answered.

"Henry? What are you doing here? You shouldn't be out so late..." The worry in her voice was evident as she brought him inside with her hand on his back and closed the door.

"Hi Grandma," he could see Mary Margaret flinch slightly at the name and inwardly smiled as she sat with him on the couch and looked over at David, who had been sitting at the counter, where he had been talking with Mary Margaret moments before. When Snow looked at him, he got up and went over and sat in the chair by the TV, which also faced the couch. "Mom never came home tonight and I got worried. Her car is parked outside, is she here?" She shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry Henry but she isn't. She left a while ago... I'm surprised she isn't home by now." Mary Margaret's brow furrowed as she bit her lip and flashed a concerned look at her husband, who immediately perked up.

"Why don't I go look for her with you?" he asked as he stood up. Mary Margaret stayed sitting, nervously twisting the ring on her finger.

"OK! What should we name it?" Henry said as he nodded and stood up too. Mary Margaret smiled and bit her lip and looked at her husband. David looked at his wife, then at his grandson.

"I don't think we'll need a codename for this mission kiddo." He tousled Henry's hair. "I'm hoping it won't take long enough that we need one..." Mary Margaret smiled and hugged Henry.

"Call me when you find her OK?" Henry nodded and smiled.

"I will." He said over his shoulder as he left with David. Henry kept heading down the stairs as Mary Margaret stopped her husband as he was halfway out the door.

"David..." She started worriedly, looking up at her husband with concern in her eyes.

"We'll find her Mary, don't worry."

"You know I have to..." David cracked a smile and leaned down and kissed her. She kissed back for a moment before pulling away. "Stop it, I know you're trying to distract me."

"No I'm not. I'm reassuring you, it'll be fine." David said as he leaned away and smiled his signature 'charming' smile and headed out. Henry was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, looking at him curiously.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"No, your grandmother just wanted to make sure I had my phone on me so that she could call if she got worried."

"Well then shouldn't she start calling now?" They both started to laugh and David looked back up as his front door.

"Yeah, I guess she should..." They headed out the door, onto the sidewalk.

"I already came from that way." Henry said, pointing in the direction Granny's and his house.

"Then we should go this way." David said as he turned in the opposite direction and started walking. Henry followed close behind and soon appeared by his side. They continued walking in silence, both looking around anxiously for any sign of Regina. Henry was about to say something about splitting up to cover more ground faster and was going to pull his walkie talkie set out of his bag when he heard sniffling.

"Do you hear that?" he asked David, before walking quickly toward the sound. Henry turned the corner of the building to find Regina sitting on the ground, hugging her knees and staring off into space, her face stained with tear tracks. It was obvious she had just finished crying moment before. "Mom! Are you OK?" he went over and sat next to her as Regina looked up.

"Oh! Henry, what are you doing here?"

"I came looking for you when you never came home... I was worried..." Regina smiled sadly and sniffled.

"I'm sorry... come on, let's go home." Henry nodded and got up, before helping Regina up as well. David smiled at Henry as his grandson hugged him.

"Thanks Grandpa."

"You're very welcome Henry, any time." Henry grinned up at him before going over to the car, waiting for Regina to unlock it. Regina started to walk, but David stopped her. "Are you sure you're OK Regina?"

"I'm fine David." she pulled away from him. "Maybe you should be a little more concerned about yourself. You don't seem all that broken up that you're never going to see Emma again." Regina snapped. David turned bright red with rage. He looked over at Henry who was still watching them. Regina unlocked the car for her son to get in, before directing her attention back to David.

"You don't think that it hurts? She's my daughter! Of course I'm broken up, but there's nothing we can do!"

"And since when does a Charming give a 'there's no hope' speech? Both you and your wife have been very... calm about the fact that Emma is no longer Emma."

"And who gave you the right to tell my wife and me how we feel?" David asked, getting angrier.

"Since you didn't give a damn that Emma's gone!" Regina screamed, and she could feel her eyes refilling with tears. "You didn't even try to stop her! You just let her go... leave forever..." Regina's bite had disappeared and was replaced with the vulnerability that she had been showing more and more with recent events.

"What?" Henry asked. Regina looked over and gasped. Henry had never gotten into the car, he had heard the whole conversation.

"Henry... I never meant for you find out like this..."

"She's... she's gone?" Regina walked over nodding. Henry gave her a look and stepped away. "I just wanna go home." Regina bit her lip and nodded, opening the driver's door as Henry got in and slammed the door shut behind himself. Regina glared at David before getting in and starting the car. David watched as the Mercedes pulled away from the curb, before walking the short distance down the side walk and back up the stairs to the apartment.


	16. Update 2 (Kind of)

Hi again guys!

First of all, I just want to thank everyone for favoriting and following and just reading this in general. It really means a lot to me because I don't really think that I deserve my 100 possibly more follows and all that, but THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU So... that happened...

Anyways, I promise that this little interruption has more value than that. I have possibly more than one question, my original may multiply as I type this... I apologize in advance.

If I were to make a companion piece to this fic, would you read it? (No spoilers, I actually have no idea how long this thing is going to end up being, I was just thinking about that the other day)

One of my friends suggested that I do video reads of my fics and put them on Youtube, specifically this one... would you watch them if I did that?

Do you care that the chapters are like super short?

Should I get someone more talented to make a cover?

Is it worth it to post my fics on other sites like Wattpad or something?

DO YOU GUYS FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS AT ALL? NO ONE EVER SENDS ME BAD REVIEWS AND I WANT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISISM. I really want to improve as a writer, but I can't really do that if y'all are only telling me good things. Not that I don't like the nice comments. I'm just gonna stop this bullet now

What's your favorite color?

Please, I beg of you, review this mini chapter with the answers to these questions because I NEED TO KNOWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Again, thank you guys so much for reading and I hope that you continue to do so. (See how I swung it back around there? I'm sure that's a writing technique of some sort...)

Anyways, this is MistyArturo signing off... PEACE


	17. Chapter 19

Henry got out of Regina's car once she had pulled into the driveway and slammed the door shut and headed up toward the house. Regina sighed and got out as well, closing the door significantly softer than her son had. He was waiting for her to come and unlock the door. She started to walk up toward the house.

"Henry can we please talk about this?"

"What is there to talk about Mom?"

"The fact that you're mad at me about something that I had no control over." She replied as she continued walking and unlocked the door. Henry proceeded to run inside and rush up to his room and slam that door shut as well. Regina sighed and ran her hand through her hair as she hung her keys on the hook next to the door and kicked her heels off, going into the kitchen. She decided that it would be best to give Henry some time to cool down before trying to talk to him. She started a pot of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table, pulling her phone out of her back pocket and unlocked it. Within moments of her opening Candy Crush, the home phone started ringing. She turned in the chair and grabbed the cordless set off of the charger directly behind her chair.

"Hello?"

"Regina?" She sighed.

"Yes, Mary Margaret, hello. Is there any particular reason as to why you are calling my house this late at night?"

"There is no reason to sass Regina, I was just making sure that you were alright..."

"Yes I am fine, seeing as hearing the same response from your husband wasn't enough..." Regina smirked, almost being able to hear Mary Margaret blush through the phone.

"Yes, well, that was all. Have a good night Regina."

"And to you as well. Goodnight." Regina replied as she ended the call and replaced the phone back on it's charger. She heard the coffee maker start to drip coffee into the pot and got two mugs out of the cupboard, as well as a pan from another. She set it on the stove and set about heating up some milk and getting the hot chocolate mix from the pantry. She poured some coffee for herself and made the hot chocolate in the second mug for Henry before taking both and heading up the stairs to her sons room. She set both of the mugs gently on the small tale that was next to the railing at the top of the stairs and knocked softly on her son's door. "Henry?"

"Go away Mom." Regina sighed and opened the door anyways, retrieving the two mugs before going in. Henry had been lying in his bed facing the wall, but when he heard his mother come in, he flipped over.

"Mom! I told you to go away!" he rolled his eyes as she kept walking in anyways, sitting at the foot of his bed.

"I thought you might like some hot chocolate... and to talk about it if you'd like..." Regina asked slowly, trying not to make Henry explode. He glared at his mother, then at the mug, before taking it from her hand and taking a sip. Regina smiled a little as she watched him shiver from the warmth and hugged her own mug to her chest. There was an awkward moment of silence before Regina spoke again. "Well I'd like to say something."

"Hm?" Henry made the questioning noise as he took another eager sip.

"I want to say thank you." Henry gave her a questioning look as he took the mug from his lips. "For coming out tonight, to look for me..." He nodded and drank again and there was another silence. They sat there for a moment as Henry finished his hot chocolate.

"Well thanks for the hot chocolate Mom..." he said as he started to roll back over, but Regina put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

"Henry stop this. You can't keep acting like this toward me."

"Yes I can Mom! I have every right!"

"No you do not! What happened to Emma was out of my control!"

"Yeah, but letting her go was!" Regina sat back, having not expected that answer. Henry saw the look of surprise and confusion on her face and continued. "You just let her leave! You didn't even try to help her or anything! You didn't even let me try..." His voice cracked as he finished and tears started to form in his eyes. Regina's face fell as she watched her son start to cry. She set her coffee on his dresser and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him to her chest as he started crying harder. Regina rested her chin on his head, feeling hot tears prick at the edges of her eyes as well.

"I'm sorry Henry... I just... there was nothing we could do."

"You could have at least let me try... or let me say goodbye..." came his muffled little reply and that pushed Regina over the edge. Her eyes closed as tears of her own fell down her face. She cried until she had cried herself out and held Henry for longer. According to the clock on her son's wall, it was around 1:00 am when he finally fell asleep. She put him to bed, pulling the covers around him and pressing a kiss to his forehead. She shut out the light and closed the door, before heading down the hall into her own bedroom, closing the door behind her. She then walked into the en suite bathroom and started her nightly ritual; taking off her make up, washing her face, and brushing her teeth. After changing into a pair of pajamas and climbing into bed, the day hit her full on. The exhaustion that had hit her like a freight train had her falling within seconds into a dreamless sleep.

Regina woke up the next morning unusually late. She checked the clock on her night stand, it read 9:45. She got up and took a shower before putting on a light grey dress and deciding to let her hair air dry. She went downstairs into the silent kitchen. _That's strange... _she thought as she noticed that Henry was nowhere in sight.

"Henry?" She called. There was no response. "Henry!" she called a little louder, hoping to bring him away from whatever he was doing. When that attempt failed as well, she headed upstairs to his room. She knocked on the door and walked in, only to find that he wasn't there either. What she did find was a little white piece of paper lying in the middle of his perfectly made bed, which was once again strange. Regina picked it up and read it, gasping.

_Mom, _

_I went to go get Emma back. Don't freak out, I'll be back as soon as I have her coming with me._

Regina sat down on her son's bed in disbelief. She reread it several times before standing up and running her hand through her hair with one hand on her hip, the note still in that hand.

"Don't worry my foot. Henry Mills... what am I going to do with you?" she said aloud before heading downstairs.

Henry walked up the stairs he had only climbed one time before, his hands just as shaky as the first time. He walked up to the off white door with fancy black cursive handwriting on it. Of course Emma would pick the same apartment, it's not like she remembered living in it the first time. He knocked on the door and held his breath, hoping she was home. There was silence for a beat, and then two. Then three. Then he heard footsteps walking toward the door and the door being opened. Emma stood in front of him, looking at Henry as if he were an alien.

"What are _you _doing here?" He grinned up at his birth mother.

"I believe that we may... know each other?"

"Cut the crap kid and get inside before people start asking questions." She moved to the side and let him in before sighing and closing the door behind herself, walking in to see what the hell was going on.


	18. Chapter 20

As Emma walked toward the kitchen, she grabbed her jeans by the belt loops and tugged them up a little, then pulled her shirt down before seeing that Henry had sat himself down in one of the bar stool and had his backpack on the stool next to him. He was looking around and drumming his fingers on the counter. She sighed and walked in, resting her forearms on the side of the counter opposite him. He looked at her with his big brown eyes and she sighed again.

"Why are you here?"

"To see you."

"But I mean really, why are you here? Regina cannot be happy at all that you're here without her. Where is she anyways? I'm surprised she didn't come over with you."

"She's not the problem Emma-"

"Henry," Emma interrupted, worry starting to slip into her voice. "Does Regina know you're here?" Henry bit his lip and her eyes fell to the floor.

"She probably knows by now..."

"Henry! You can't be here! You have to go home! Regina must be worried sick..." _Not to mention if they find you here with me without Regina's consent..._

Then, Henry's cellphone ring tone went off and the sound of the Harry Potter theme song filled the room. "Are you going to answer that?"

"Nope."

"What if it's Regina?"

"She'll be fine."

"Henry!" Emma made a reach for his bag to get his phone out of it but he got to it first, hugging it close to his chest as Emma shot daggers in his direction. _Definitely not our Emma... _He thought as he sighed.

"I want you to come back home with me."

"I am not going back there!" Henry sighed again.

"Well I'm not going back until you drive me so..." Emma started to suck in a breath to say something, then stopped, held it for a few moments and let it go. He had gotten her there. She had known this kid long enough and she knew he would do as he said. Even if she put him on a bus while he was sleeping, he'd be back soon enough. She was about to say something when his phone rang again. Emma glared at him as he ignored it again. It was really starting to bug her.

"Henry, Regina's really worried about you, you should just leave and -"

"Not. Without. You." Henry folded his arms defiantly and stared at Emma. She stared back, hoping to force some guilt into him somehow... or something. After almost a full minute Emma had to end it.

"I'll just call Regina myself and -"

"And if you call my mom, I'll call the police and tell them you kidnapped me." he said as if it were as easy as that, which it was.

"And they'll believe you because I'm your birth mother..." she said as she sighed in defeat. Henry nodded triumphantly as he gave her an 'eat shit' grin. She straightened up and put one hand on her hip as the other swiped some hair out of her face. "Alright, I guess I'm going back to 'Crazy Town, U.S.A." Henry grinned and jumped off his stool and Emma could see his internal little fist pump. She shook her head and sighed, grabbed her leather jacket from its hook by the door and headed out with Henry close on her heels.

Regina was pacing the length of her living room, her panic level on about an eleven out of ten. She had called David, since he had become sheriff once again after Emma had left. He was currently in the other room, on the phone with someone, trying to see if they could track the credit card that he had stolen from her. _He's a sneaky kid..._ she thought as David came back into the room. Her phone vibrated in her hand and she quickly checked to see if it was her son, but it was only a Candy Crush notification.

"Please tell me you have good news."

"I do... kind of."

"Kind of?" Regina's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she felt her heart start to beat faster in her chest. "If something wrong? Is he OK?"

"He used the card t the bus station, but hasn't used it since, which poses a bit of a problem."

"And why is that? Why don't you just send someone out there to go and get him?"

"Regina, did it ever cross your mind that Emma may not live in Boston anymore?" The brunette deflated. She had never thought about that. Then the panic overtook her emotions again.

"We have to go find him. I can leave and come back, I'll go and-"

"Regina stop. You know that's an awful idea."

"I am not just going to let my son-" she was interrupted by her phone ringing. Within the same second she was already on the phone.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Hi Mom!" came the cheery reply from the other end. Regina covered mouth as her eyes filled with tears.

"Henry? Oh my god where are you? I've been so worried! Get home right now!"

"I'm coming Mom," he said in his typical annoyed teenage voice. "I'm bringing Emma home!"

"You're what? Henry that's an awful idea!"

"Mom it's the only way you'll get your happy ending!"

"Henry..." she gave him her warning tone, but before he could respond, Emma took the phone away from him.

"Hi Regina, it's Emma."

"Oh. Hello Emma."

"I really don't mind bringing him back into town..."

"I couldn't possibly impose-"

"I'm serious. We'll leave first thing in the morning." Regina sighed, realizing that there was obviously no way she was winning this battle.

"Alright. Can I just speak to him for one more second?"

"Sure." Emma handed the phone back and gave Henry a look that suggested trouble.

"Mom?"

"I just wanted to say goodnight..." Regina tried, but Henry could tell that her voice implied otherwise.

"Mom, don't try to hide the fact that you're angry from me. I can tell." Regina sighed again. Was she really this readable?

"We'll talk when you get home." Regina spoke shortly. Goodnight, I love you."

"I love you too Mom, night." They both hung up and Henry turned to face Emma. "She's so mad..."

"That's you're own fault kid. Why don't you go get ready for bed. There's a spare room, second door on your right."

"Thanks Emma, good night." he said as he headed off down the hall.

"Night kid..." Emma replied breathily as she turned and went back into the kitchen and started some water for tea. She could feel that she wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon so she decided to try and finish the reports from some cases that she had been working on. She took the teapot off the heat of the stove a half second before it started whistling and she was relieved she grabbed it in time. The last thing she needed was Henry waking up and asking questions all night. She poured the hot water into her favorite panda bear mug and added an orange tea bag. Plopping down on the sofa and setting her mug on the small table next to her, Emma pulled her binders that had been haphazardly thrown next to her on the couch into her lap and pulled a pen out of the pencil case clipped into the purple one. With the small lamp from the table there was enough light, not too little to make her strain her eyes, but also not too much that it would wake Henry up down the hall. She worked until she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore before calling it quits. She put all of her stuff away and headed off down the hall as silently as she could. She peeked her head into Henry's room; he was still fast asleep, but he had kicked all his blankets off and was now curled into a little ball at the center of the bed. Emma sighed and went in, fixing the blankets around his sleeping form. He seemed happier so she left it at that and headed to the end of the hall into her own room. She closed the door, stripped down to her cami and underwear and climbed into bed. Sleep came easily now and her eyes drifted shut quickly. It seemed like she had just fallen asleep when there was a knock at the door. Still half asleep, she rolled over and groaned; the okay for Henry to come in. She took a look at him and groaned again. He was fully dressed and clearly ready for the day.

"Emma? Why are you still in bed? Are you sick?"

"No." came her grumpy reply as she shoved some hair out of her face.

"Then why are you still in bed?"

"Kid, do you even know what time it is?"

"Yeah, 10:30, why?" Emma checked her phone on the nightstand and groaned, but this time shoved her pillow over her head.

"I'll be up in a minute, just give me some time to change, OK?" came Emma's muffled voice from under the pillow.

"OK, I'll go figure our what to have for breakfast."

"Don't bother, there's nothing in the house, we'll have to stop on our way out." Henry's only response was the door clicking shut behind him. Emma sighed in exasperation before dragging herself out of bed, knowing it was going to be a long day.

She went into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She decided it wasn't absolutely necessary that she shower and that she didn't really want to with Henry around. She didn't know why, she just didn't. She brushed her teeth and hair before going back into her bedroom and over to her dresser where she grabbed a pair of jeans and a white t shirt and throwing them on before going to see what Henry was up to. He was sitting on the couch watching the news.

"Hey kid, whatcha watching?"

"The news." he replied as if it was normal for 11 year olds to voluntarily watch the news.

"Alright... You ready to head out?"

"Sure!" Henry jumped off the couch and turned the tv off before grabbing his backpack that had been sitting next to him. Emma smiled and grabbed her keys off the counter along with her leather jacket off the coat rack. Emma closed the door behind them as she sighed.

"Alright... let's do this."


	19. Chapter 21

Emma sighed as the highway lights were starting to come on and create the slow, strobe like effect as she and Henry drove. They had barely exchanged any words once they had gotten into the car, but neither one seemed to mind all that much. After awhile Henry had turned on the radio and they listened to whatever was on until Emma lost it when J_ust __T__he __W__ay __Y__ou __A__re_ by Bruno Mars played for the 5th time in an hour and shut it off. They stopped for lunch at a McDonald's at a rest stop on the highway, then later pulled off at Watertown and had dinner at some little restaurant called The Buffalo Head before hitting the road again. Henry sighed and stared out the window, watching the lights of little towns here and there pass and they drove. He had dozed off a few times in between, but he was up for the last couple hours.

"How's it goin' Kid?"

"Fine. I'll feel better when we're home." Emma bit her lip as he said it. _Home_. That's what it was supposed to be for her. She held her breath for a moment before letting it go. Her mind had drifted to what had happened on Main Street right before she left. How that thing came at her and Regina got in front of her like it was no big deal. She felt her heart clench at the idea of Regina getting hurt. She shook her head. _No. You don't like Regina. It doesn't matter. _But no matter how hard she tried she couldn't shake a feeling from the pit of her stomach.

"Henry?"

"Yeah?" She looked over at her and she glanced at him when she could.

"What happened before I left, the big thing and what Regina did, I imagined that, right?" There was a pause where neither of them said anything. A big truck honked its horn in the oncoming traffic. Henry took a breath.

"It's kind of complicated to explain, especially right now."

"Oh. OK..." Emma shut up about it, focusing on driving in the fast fading daylight. If Henry didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't going to make him. It was well after 8:00 pm when they got back over the town line and another 15 minutes to get to Regina's house. Emma pulled into the driveway and parked. She expected Henry to get out, and when he didn't, she gave him a confused look.

"Alright Henry, you're home." Henry didn't move except for turn to face Emma. "Aren't you gonna get out?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"I'm not getting out unless you come with me." Emma sighed, and knowing Henry wasn't going to give up, didn't even try to put up a fight and unbuckled her seat belt and started to get out.

"OK, let's do this then." Henry grinned and got out with her and they walked to the door. Emma went to ring the doorbell, but she hadn't even toughed the button when the door flew open and Regina was standing there.

"Henry!" she steeped forward and pulled him into a tight hug, her hand running through his hair. "What on earth did you think you were doing running away like that again?"

"I was finding my mom." he said matter of factly with a massive grin on his face before walking past Regina and into the house, leaving Emma and Regina alone. Regina watched as her son walked upstairs to his room before turning her attention to Emma, who cleared her throat.

"Well, I'd better be getting back-"

"Nonsense, you'd be driving all night."

"I'll be fine, really, I don't mind."

"Well I do, you're staying here." Emma huffed, trying to find a reason for her not staying the night.

"I'm not staying here, I have no reason to-"

"Yes you do!" Henry called from upstairs, his bedroom door open so he could hear what was happening. "Me!"

"Henry you have… your mother." Emma's voice faltered at saying Regina's name.

"You're right, I do have you!" he called down again. Regina groaned.

"That kid is such a wise ass..." Regina muttered before giving Emma and apologetic look.

"I heard that!"

"Of course you did..." Regina muttered again.

"Just remember, if Emma leaves I'll just go find her again!" Both women sighed and looked at each other.

"Just one night?" Regina asked.

"Just one night." Emma said at the same time.

"Yes!" could he heard from Henry's bedroom and both women laughed.

"Well I should go get my room at Granny's, because you know how that place fills up..." Emma joked.

"Nonsense, just stay here. I've got more than enough rooms."

"I couldn't..."

"Well you will." Regina said with a final tone in her voice. Emma let it go, not wanting to fight Regina over something so petty. Emma was led inside and upstairs to one of the guest rooms. As Emma walked up behind her, Regina's curve stuck out to her more than they did before and it caught her by surprise as she gasped a little. "Is everything alright dear?"

"Yeah, everything's fine." Emma replied. The got to the top of the stairs and walked a little ways down the hallway to the room that would be Emma's, which was coincidentally next to Regina's own. "Here you are."

"Thanks… Regina." Emma still got caught on her name and felt herself blushing slightly.

"Let me know if you need anything alright?" Emma nodded and Regina took that as her cue to go back downstairs. Emma went in and closed the door as she heard Regina's heels clicking around on the hardwoods below her. She looked around and the big bed against one wall with a nightstand on either side. A dresser was against another wall, next to the window, which overlooked the backyard. There was another door that Emma could only assume led to an en suite bathroom. She sighed as she contemplated her next move. Pulling her phone out of her back pocket, she checked the time; it was 8:45 pm. She would go downstairs, but that would mean having to talk to Regina, who would no doubt interrogate her and make her spill her guts, and going to see Henry would mean him interrogating her and making her spill her guts. Emma could definitely see the resemblance between mother and son. With nothing else to do, Emma stripped down to her cami and panties and crawled into bed. As she laid her head down on the pillow, she realized how tired driving all day had made her. She found herself falling asleep quickly, but it was the light kind of sleep, the kind that had Emma awake as fast as she had fallen asleep, but her dreams were filled with Regina and she found herself awake again much sooner than she would have hoped.

Regina puttered around downstairs for awhile before heading up to bed herself. She went into Henry's room and made sure he was asleep, since he had a habit of staying up all hours of the night doing god knows what on the internet, but luckily, he was already fast asleep. She fixed the covers around him a little and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"Goodnight my little prince, I'm glad you're home safe." she whispered and started to move away, before bending back over her son. "Thank you for giving me a second chance." She cracked a smile and walked out, closing the door softly behind her. She leaned against the door for a moment and let out a sigh, before heading into her own room. She closed the door behind her and began to get ready for bed.

Emma listened from her bedroom to Regina moving around outside her door, then to the bedroom door closing. She found herself wondering what kind of face wash Regain used, or if she put lotion on and what it smelled like, and if she brushed her hair, and what she looked like without makeup on. Emma flipped over on her pillow with a huff and shut her eyes again, relaxing every muscle in her body after finding a comfortable position, but sleep still wouldn't come for her. After several minutes of tossing and turning restlessly, she sighed and finally sat up in bed and slid to the edge and groped for her pants in the dark.

Regina had just settled into bed and had picked up her book to read for a moment before turning out the light, when she heard feet padding down the hall outside her door. Raising an eyebrow, she got up and went to the door as she heard the same feet going down the stairs. She opened it and saw a light coming from the kitchen. Curious, she went down to see what was going on. When she got into the white room, she found Emma standing at the stove, heating up some milk. Emma heard her come in and her head shot up from her work.

"Oh, sorry, did I wake you up?"

"Oh no, I was reading but I heard someone come down. Is everything OK?" Regina stepped a bit closer and suddenly Emma was painfully aware of what the other woman was wearing; a spaghetti strap top, white, lacy nightgown that grazed mid thigh and not leaving much to the imagination. She shook it off and ignored the feeling.

"Nothing's wrong," she replied. "I am fan-fucking-tastic." she mumbled as she went back to her milk and took it off the stove and went to the other side of the kitchen to put it in her mug that already had hot chocolate mix in the bottom.

"Emma, come on. I know when something's up."

"I said I'm fine!" Emma insisted as she mixed her drink. She then went to the refrigerator and started rummaging around for something. "Where's my whipped cream? It's always in the-" she stopped, frozen. Regina looked at her, eyes wide.

"Did… did you just remember something?"

"I… I think I did." Emma's eyes fluttered to the can of whipped cream in the back and she got it out and closed the refrigerator slowly as Regina broke into a smile.

"That's a good thing right? Why do you look so sad?"

"It hasn't happened in a while… I didn't think it was gonna happen again." Emma said quietly as she leaned against the counter with her hands, head between her shoulders, shaking slightly. Regina stepped forward, but as she did, Emma threw the whipped cream can as the wall. Regina jumped back, surprised and scared. Emma spun around, her hands running through her blonde tresses.

"Emma!"

"Why can't I remember anything?" She asked, frustrated, her voice raising. Her arms fell to her sides.

"Emma, you have, you just did..." Regina started to say as she stepped closer to Emma.

"No. Why can't I remember the important things, like who I am, what my life was, the combination to the gym locker I had, my parents birthdays, Henry's birthday, anything important besides where I kept the damn whipped cream?" Emma's voice continued to rise as she spoke and her hands clenched into fists until it finally quieted and she let her hands relax. "My favorite color." Her voice cracked and she could feel tears welling up in her eyes and her throat burned. "If I always loved the colors the sky turns when the sun goes down and comes up." Emma felt the hot tears siding down her face and there was nothing she could do to stop them. She looked at the ground and her eyes closed. She could feel tears hitting her socks, but she didn't care. "How I'm supposed to feel about you." Regina took in a slow breath and bit her lip, realizing that was what this was all stemming from.

"Emma, you know you don't have to feel anything-"

"Yes I do!"

"Emma no you don't, that's not how this works!"

"How the hell does it work then?" Emma folded her arms over her chest and started to cry. Regina pouted and pulled Emma into her arms and Emma didn't even try to resist. She just buried her face into Regina's chest and cried harder.

"It's alright… I've got you." Regina rubbed little circles on the other woman's back and it made her heart ache for the days when she would comfort Emma like this after she had a nightmare. When Emma had finally cried herself out, Regina walked her to the couch and sat her down before going back to the kitchen and making two more mugs of hot chocolate and came back, giving one to Emma. Regina sat next to her on the couch and tucked her feet underneath herself. "So, do you want to talk about what's going on?" They sat in silence for a moment as Emma bit her lip.

"I don't know that you wanna hear it."

"Nonsense."

"Alright..." Emma took a breath. She didn't feel quite comfortable being this open with what was going on inside her head, but Regina probably deserved to hear it.


	20. Chapter 22

"I haven't been able to get you out of my head. Even when I was back in Boston, I would wonder what you were doing, what you were wearing, stuff like that. I just tried to forget about it, thought it was just because… I didn't really know why. I always had the guilt at the back of my mind that I had let everyone down, even after everything that happened; I told myself it was that. But I'd still have dreams about being in town, hanging out with you and Henry, like I had never even left. We went to the park, to the movies, made dinner together; really domestic stuff, ya know? And I'd wake up with this warm fuzzy feeling inside, but it didn't stay long. I kept trying to forget about it, kept telling myself to move on, and it never worked. The dreams stopped after a little while and I thought it was over. Then Henry showed up and I knew I was screwed-" Emma was stopped by Regina's disapproving look, probably from her language but she continued anyways. "I considered putting him on a bus for all of two seconds-" Emma stopped as earned another cold glare. "-before I realized I wouldn't make it to the next morning if I did that."

"Nice save..." Regina muttered, taking a sip from her hot chocolate. Emma sighed before continuing.

"And so I showed up thinking I would only have to talk to you for a second, and that I would go and I wouldn't have to deal with any of what was inside my head. I didn't want to have to try and figure out what had been happening; it confused me too much. And then you made me stay and ever since I've been here you've been messing with me even more..." Emma looked at her feet, hair hanging in her face.

"And how am I messing with you dear? Is it something I said?" Regina looked Emma, her eyes and voice filled with concern that she had done something to make her uncomfortable. She moved forward a little and rested her hand on top of Emma's. The blonde pulled it away.

"Yes and no. It's the way you were so nice to me even though I like... ran out of town in an angry rage. It's the way you let me stay here overnight so that I could get home safe eventually."

"Eventually?" Regina raised an eyebrow. "It sounds to me like you never intended on leaving..." Emma blushed a bright red and paused before continuing again.

"You just… you're being so nice and friendly and warm and inviting and you're gorgeous and my head is just begging..." Emma trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. She took a long sip of her hot chocolate, staring at her feet.

"Your head is begging you to what, Emma?" Regina pressed, knowing exactly what she meant but wanted to hear Emma say it herself.

"I wanna stay..." Emma mumbled softly under her breath, her blush creeping back onto her face.

"Hm?" Regina asked again.

"I want to stay in Storybrooke." Emma said again, a little bit louder.

"One more time dear." Regina smirked a little, enjoying playing with her.

"I want to stay in Storybrooke OK? I want to stay with you and Henry and go to the park and the movies and make dinner together and cuddle with you at night and..." Regina broke into a grin.

"I get your point dear. I want you to stay too, if you don't mind." Emma smiled a little, her head still tilted toward her feet slightly. Regina looked at the clock hanging on the wall and saw that it was 1:30 am. "Would you like to start on that list you just gave me?" Emma's eyebrow raised in confusion. Regina stood up and took Emma's hand, pulling her off the couch. They left their mugs on the small table in front of the couch as Regina led Emma upstairs. They crept into Regina's room as silently as they could so as not to wake up Henry, who was still sound asleep. Regina closed the door to her bedroom and walked with Emma over to the bed. Pulling back the covers, they both slipped under and Regina covered them both up. Regina turned over, finding Emma lying on her back. Regina smiled. "Get over here silly." Emma tentatively scooched over to Regina, who once Emma was within reach, wrapped her arms around her and pulled her closer. She let out a happy little sigh, then looked at Emma, who looked and felt tense. "Is everything OK dear?" Emma bit her lip.

"Am I like… OK?"

"If course you are dear, what could you have done wrong?"

"I don't know… just…"

"Emma, it's alright. You're fine."

"Are you sure? Is there like… something I'm supposed to-"

"There's nothing you're supposed to or not supposed to be doing. Just shhhh." Regina whispered softly as she rubbed little circles into Emma's back until she felt her relax in her arms a little and smiled as she felt the blonde then snuggle in closer to her. Regina let out another contented sigh. _Just like it's supposed to be. _Regina felt herself falling asleep quickly once she felt Emma's breathing even out. Slowly, her eyelids started to get heavy and she let them fall, sleep winning her over within minutes.

When Regina woke up in the morning, she made a face and rolled over away from the sunrise light streaming in through the window directly onto her face, groping around to pull Emma back to her, but found no other body in the bed. Her eyes shot open and she sat up. Had she gone too far too fast? Had she scared her off? Had she left town again? Regina felt the worry swirl in her chest until she heard the toilet flush and the water running in the en suite; soon seeing Emma come out. The blonde stopped upon seeing Regina looking so worried.

"Regina? Is everything alright?" Regina relaxed and put a smile on her face.

"Yes dear, everything's fine."

"Good." Emma smiled and walked across the room, back to the bed and got in again, trapping what warmth hadn't escaped, in. She moved back closer to Regina and pulled herself into the brunette's chest, wrapping her arms around her waist. Regina smiled but started to move away as she looked at the clock that read 6:24 am; Henry was already up and probably eating breakfast in the kitchen.

"Emma, come on, I should start getting ready to go to work."

"Nope. You're the one who made me cuddle and I love cuddling, so we are staying right here." Regina sighed, never one to object much to cuddling and settled back into bed.

"I should have known this would happen… you were like this before too." Emma laughed a little and pulled the blankets around them a little more, shifted uncomfortably, and came to rest against Regina's back. Regina could sense the blonde's discomfort and turned in her arms to face her.

"What's up?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean something's bugging you."

"Nothing's..." Emma bit her lip and Regina stopped her.

"Yes there is. You always bite your lip when you're lying. What's going on?" Emma looked away but found that she couldn't keep herself from looking into Regina's worry ridden eyes and felt the guilt eating away at her until she cracked. Emma opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Henry.

"Bye Mom, bye Emma, I'll see you later!" The door slammed behind him and they were left in silence, apart from the muffled sound of the bus brakes, then the bus starting to move again. Regina looked at Emma, who looked away and said nothing, leaving them in an awkward silence until Regina finally broke it.

"Emma? What were you going to say?" Regina urged gently. Emma still didn't speak

"Am… am I doing OK?" the blonde blurted out. Regina was a bit shocked and confused, one eyebrow raising slightly.

"Well, I don't think that's a question that I can-"

"No I mean… am I close enough to your Emma?" Regina bit her lip and felt her heart drop into her stomach.

"Emma, I'm not expecting you to be who you were before..." Emma looked confused.

"You're not? Isn't that why you're keeping me around?" Regina wrapped her arms around Emma's waist as she felt the dagger in her heart twist a little.

"Of course not. I'm not just keeping you around to fill space..." Regina watched Emma's face fall and paused for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "I invited you to stay over because you shouldn't be driving around at night exhausted. I fell in love with you, this is now the second time, because you're sweet and kind and caring and beautiful and funny..." Regina trailed off, her face smiling into Emma's, lost in her own mind. Emma brought her back to earth as she started to speak.

"So… I'm adequate?" Regina huffed.

"Would you stop that? I just told you, you do not by any means have to be your old self, nor do I expect you to be." Regina found herself raising her voice unnecessarily and lowered it again, softening it as well. "I love this Emma just as much as I loved the old one." Emma bit her lip and After, obviously contemplating.

"You sure?"

"As sure as I'll ever be." Regina replied as she glanced at the clock again; 6:47 am. "I really should be getting to work..." Emma pouted and fought it, tugging on Regina's arm to get her to stay, but she was no match for Madame Mayor. Regina got up and went to shower, leaving Emma alone. The blonde fell back onto the pillows and waited for Regina to get out of the bathroom. Twenty five minutes later Emma sat up as Regina walked out, hair done and makeup on, wrapped in one of the fluffiest bathrobes Emma had ever seen. Emma found herself staring and looked away as Regina smirked. "See something you like dear?" Emma bit her lip and turned red. She got out of bed and grabbed a towel on her way into the bathroom.

"No..."

"Oh, what a shame..." Regina grinned as she teased Emma, looking through her closet for something to wear. Emma just gave Regina a slightly confused look before closing the bathroom door behind herself, leaving Regina all alone in the bedroom.


	21. Chapter 23

Regina finished getting ready and headed out, leaving a note on the kitchen table. Emma came out of the steam filled bathroom, finding herself alone in the house. She changed into jeans and a t shirt and headed downstairs. She went into the kitchen to find food and found Regina's note on the table instead. She picked it up and read it.

_Emma, _

_ As you can probably tell, I've left for work; I would have said goodbye but I was running terribly late, I hope you don't mind. There__ are__ eggs in the refrigerator and bread in the pantry if you'd like some breakfast. __The remote for the TV is on the console, in the basket on the second shelf. __If you do feel so inclined, the washing machine and dryer are in the mud room and the detergent is the blue bottle, not the purple one; Henry has mixed up the bleach and detergent more than once, so do be careful. __You'll be on your own for lunch, seeing as I have no reason to purchase lunch foods with my family's schedule. __Henry gets out of school at 2:00 and I'm sure it would make his day if you picked him up._

_ Good luck,_

_ Regina_

_P.S. You __will__ get brownie points if you happen to drop by my office around noon with a salad…_

Emma smiled as she finished reading the note. She could almost hear the smirk Regina implied in the last sentence. She took a look at the clock; it read 7:30 am. Emma sighed, it was going to be a long day with nothing to do. She puttered around the house for awhile, played some games on her phone, watched TV and made herself some toast for breakfast once she got hungry. Emma couldn't believe that Regina didn't keep normal, white, wonder bread in the house, only weird whole grain organic stuff. So she went out to the store and bought herself a loaf of bread, then made her toast, the way toast was meant to be. She tried to figure out how to work Regina's coffee maker, but gave up after ten minutes and settled for orange juice. Once her dishes were put away in the dishwasher, her eyes found Regina's note again. Deciding to try and put herself to use if she was going to be staying there for awhile. She put the rest of the dirty dishes that were scattered around the counter in the dishwasher from Regina and Henry's scramble to get out the door that morning and started it up. She then went into each of their bedrooms and collected the dirty clothes (not that there were that many to begin with, Regina was really on top of things) and started a load of whites. She hopped up on top of the washer and looked out the window in the door leading outside and looked at the apple tree that was growing in the backyard. Emma smiled at the little pods of flowers that were planted around it and the stone bench that was on the side facing the house. The clock on the wall ticked unusually loud, bringing Emma out of her reverie. She looked at it and saw that it read 8:00.

"Great… only four hours to kill..." Emma grumbled as she hopped off and headed back into the kitchen, standing in the center of it and putting her hands on her hips, trying to decide what to do next. Unable to find anything, she went back to the TV to see if anything good was on. She was flipping through channels when she noticed a little red box in the corner of the screen. Curious, she clicked on it, opening a menu of TV shows and movies. Intrigued, Emma clicked the show that looked the most violent and settled in to see what it was all about.

Four and a half hours later Emma was halfway through her fifth episode of Daredevil when she checked the time on her phone and realized that it was 12:30 and she was late for lunch with Regina.

"Shit!" She paused the TV, turned it off, and jumped off the couch, running out the door as fast as she could. She nearly broke the speed limit by more than was acceptable and burst into Granny's, making everyone's head shoot up. She ignored the stares and went over to the counter where Ruby was leaning, smiling. "I need a salad and a burger, two iced teas and an order of fries, like, yesterday."

"Whoa, OK, don't worry Emma, I got you." Ruby went into the kitchen and Emma could see her whisper something to Granny who just nodded and then disappeared further into the kitchen as Ruby came back out. "Give her ten minutes and you'll be on your way." Emma nodded and smiled gratefully.

"Thank you." She took out her wallet and paid Ruby for the food, then waited sitting down on a stool at the counter. She had been sitting there for a minute when the door bell rang and Emma turned to see who it was, but her face quickly fell. Mary Margaret and David were walking in, trying to maneuver Neal's stroller in through the door. They finally got it in and Mary Margaret took her hat off and ran her hand through her hair with a sigh before noticing Emma. Shocked, they stood looking at each other for a moment. David, who had been busy fussing with the baby, glanced over at his wife and saw her frozen and immediately became concerned.

"Mary Margaret? Are you-" his words died in his throat as his eyes followed his wife's gaze, which led straight to Emma. "Emma..." he barely whispered. Mary Margaret snapped out of it first, putting a smile on her face.

"Emma, what are you doing back in town? I thought you had left after..." she realized where her sentence was going and trailed off, her eyes flitting away from her daughter.

"Henry brought me back, got on a bus by himself in the middle of the night and found me in Boston..." Emma said, obviously not very comfortable in the conversation.

"Again? I can't believe he would-" Mary Margaret saw the confused look on Emma's face and stopped talking. "Sorry..." Emma didn't say anything but avoided making eye contact. Finally, it came out in to go containers and a bag, but Emma saw it as a sweet escape. Emma grabbed them and left, shouting her thanks over her shoulder once again as she went out the door. Ruby returned to leaning against the counter and sighed, smiling. Granny came out and stood next to her granddaughter, her spatula in hand.

"Ya know, I'm really enjoying watching this all play out again..." Granny snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Get back to work." Ruby laughed breathily and straightened herself before going to wait on table three. Emma walked into Regina's office at 12:45 on the dot, finding Regina bent over her desk, glasses perched on her nose and clearly focused. Emma didn't really know what to do, so she just stood in the doorway until Regina gave a frustrated groan and tossed her glasses on the desk, leaning back and running her hands through her hair. She noticed Emma and was startled before smiling.

"Well hello there, I didn't think you would show..."

"I'm so sorry Regina… I got caught up-"

"Emma."

"Yeah?"

"You're fine dear. You didn't have to bring me lunch if you didn't want to."

"Yeah but I did but then I got distracted and-"

"Emma?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop babbling unneeded explanations and sit down." Emma nodded and did so, pulling their food out of the plastic bag Ruby had given her. Regina smiled and started to meticulously mix the dressing into her salad. After about a minute Emma spoke up.

"Are you gonna eat that or just play with it?" she teased. Regina just rolled her eyes and started eating, leaving both in silence, apart from the sound of chewing.

"So, what distracted you so heavily that you were late?" Regina asked in a way that could have been suggestive, but Emma didn't even want to attempt to compute what she was suggesting for fear of short circuiting.

"Oh… it was nothing." Regina raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Really?" Emma didn't look up from her food but she could feel Regina's eyes boring a hole in the top of her head and even though Emma knew she was just teasing she could feel the pressure to answer honestly.

"Alright… I started watching this TV show because I had nothing to do." Regina started to laugh, like really laugh. Emma got confused and slightly scared, not knowing what was going on.

"Regina…? Did… did I say something?" Regina grinned and looked at her, still laughing a little.

"Oh Emma… you've done this so many times before… And you were so nervous to tell me..." She went into another small laughing fit again before pulling herself together. "Oh… Emma," She kept smiling. "What show was it this time?"

"Daredevil?" Regina smiled.

"You had just gotten into that one. You liked how the one guy in the mask was fighting to save the city." Emma cracked a smile as she took another bite of her burger. "And you thought the blonde was pretty." Regina added as an afterthought as Emma nearly choked and turned beet red. Was she really that similar to her old self? Regina started laughing again as Emma took a sip from her tea to clear her throat. "Oh! I almost forgot to tell you!"

"Tell me what?"

"I got you your job back."

"Yes! Thank you Regina! You have no idea how boring today has been!" Regina smiled.

"I'm sure. You can start tomorrow." Emma hugged Regina over the desk, grinning. The brunette glanced at the clock and noticed it was 1:15 pm, then checked her watch to confirm the time. "Oh, I'm sorry Emma, as much as I'd like you to stay, I have to get back to work if I want to get home in time for dinner." Emma nodded and started to clean up the garbage.

"No, it's OK. I get it. I'm assuming I'll see you later?"

"Well I would hope so, seeing as you're staying at my house." Emma grinned and finished putting the garbage in the plastic bag.

"Well, I guess I I'll see you later then."

"Yes dear." Emma stood in the doorway awkwardly for a moment in silence before realizing she should go, so she did. Regina waved goodbye before going back to her work. Emma walked out into the sunlight and smiled happily at the feeling of it on her skin. She threw the plastic bag full of their lunch leftovers into the dumpster on the side of the building. She checked the time on her phone; 1:20 pm. Forty minutes to kill until Henry got out of school. She decided to leave her bug at Regina's office and go for a walk. It was a little chillier than she'd prefer, but not too bad that if she didn't zip up her jacket she wouldn't be fine. She made it to Henry's school with five minutes to spare and sat on the bench outside the fence and waited for the bell. It rang right on time and soon the sidewalk was filled with kids running ever which way. Emma stood up to try and find Henry, but he found her first, startling her as he grabbed her around the waist in a bear hug.

"Emma!" she smiled.

"Hey kid."

"What are you doing here? Is everything OK?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just thought you might like it if we went out and did something." Henry's grin was a mile wide.

"Can we go to Granny's? I'm starving."

"Sure, if that's what you wanna do." He nodded and they started walking down the sidewalk. Emma asked about school and Henry answered with the standard 'I don't know' and she left it at that. They walked to Granny's filling the time with chit chat about whatever happened to come up. They got there and Ruby gave Emma a little smile as they walked in, before waiting a couple minutes to go wait on them. Henry ordered fries and a milkshake, but Emma didn't get anything because she had just eaten.

"So, staying in town's been pretty awful for you huh?" Henry teased.

"Shut up kid, I can still leave ya know." Emma smiled and reached to tussle his hair from across the table but he leaned out of the way. Ruby came over with Henry's food and they ate in silence, but it wasn't awkward. Once he had finished they paid and left, heading to get Emma's car from Regina's office. They got the car and went back to Regina's house and as soon as they got inside, Henry ran up to his room and shut the door and Emma was alone again. She went to the washing machine and got her first load out and threw another one in before throwing the wet clothes in the dryer. She then went to check and see if the dishes were still hot from the dishwasher running and found that she could unload it, so she did. That took her all of ten minutes and once she finished, she found that she had nothing left to do. She didn't want to go back to watching that show, but she really, really did. After about thirty seconds of willpower, she caved and went to the couch and started it up again where she had left off.


	22. Chapter 24

Regina got home around 6:30 pm, closing the door and leaning against it with a sigh. She pushed away and kicked off her heels and dropped her purse by the door.

"I'm home!" she called into the house before she went into the kitchen. Henry didn't acknowledge her but Emma called from the den.

"I'll be there in… three minutes and forty seven seconds." Regina laughed.

"Alright dear." She went into the fridge and pulled out a bag of shrimp and set it on the counter to defrost before getting out some lettuce and other assorted vegetables. Emma came in and sat in a chair at the table.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"What are we having for dinner?"

"Pasta with shrimp and a salad." Emma nodded but Regina couldn't see it and turned. "Is that alright? I can make something else."

"Oh, no. It's fine."

"Are you-"

"Regina, it's fine." Regina brought her lips into her mouth for a moment before nodding and going back to her cooking. She got out a pot and started to boil some water on the stove, then washed all the vegetables.

"Do you want to help me cut these up?"

"Sure." Emma got up and grabbed a knife out of the block sitting on the counter and started chopping up carrots, tomatoes, olives, and the like. Regina broke the lettuce off the head and threw it in the bowl before turning her attention to the now boiling water. She put the pasta in and started the timer for eight minutes. She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. Emma glanced over her shoulder, keeping one eye on the cutting she was doing so she didn't lose a finger. "Everything OK over there?"

"Yes, just tired, that's all." Emma gave a sympathetic smile before throwing the last of the vegetables into the bowl. "Are you a 'mix in the dressing' person?"

"No, Henry has this one that he likes. We all just do our own thing." Emma nodded and set the salad bowl in the middle of the table as Regina returned her attention to the pasta and set the table for three around it. She then went into the fridge and got out three dressings and put them on the table, along with some craisins. Regina turned around to find the table set; all they needed was the pasta. "Oh, that's Henry's job..."

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't realize… I can like… unset it if you want..." Regina smirked.

"He doesn't _enjoy _setting it Emma..."

"Oh."

"It's alright, I can have him do the laundry later." Emma bit her lip and looked down.

"I kinda did that too." Regina looked surprised.

"Wow, I'm impressed. You've been busy today."

"It's nothing, really." Regina smiled, then glanced at the table and her face fell. "What? Did I do something wrong?" Emma looked concerned as her eyes flitted between the table and Regina.

"How did you know what to put out for the salad?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the dressings and the craisins. How did you know which ones to get out?"

"I- I don't know." Regina smiled excitedly.

"That's another memory back." Emma tried to crack a smile but her true emotions were quite evident as she truend her back to Regina.

"Emma? Emma? What's wrong?" Regina pushed away from the counter and toward Emma but the blonde spun around fast, making Regina stop dead in her tracks.

"How long is this going to take? You act like it's such a big deal that I remembered what salad dressing you use! It's not! Is this how long's it's going to take? It's been weeks and that's all I remember!" Emma worked herself up into a rage, her voice raising as she started to pace. Regina could see her getting madder and madder until she finally cracked, running her hands through her hair. The yelling stopped along with the pacing. Emma stood in the middle of the kitchen, her hands covering her face. Regina slowly went over, but Emma turned again, more slowly this time. "I just want to remember..." Her voice was soft as it cracked and Regina silently pulled her into her arms, holding her there, rubbing little circles on her back. They stayed like that for several minutes until the timer on the stove went off and broke the calm silence between them. Emma pulled away but Regina grabbed her by the shoulders and made the blonde look at her.

"It's going to be OK; you'll remember, I promise."

"But what if I-"

"No. You're going to remember, end of story." Emma looked away at the ground but Regina brought her back to meet her eyes. "I want you to repeat after me: I am going to remember."

"I… I'm going to… to remember." Regina smiled.

"Good." Emma nodded and Regina pulled away to go see how badly she had overcooked the pasta.

"I'll go get Henry for dinner?"

"Yes please." Emma left and went upstairs, knocking on Henry's door.

"Come in." could be heard through the wood and Emma went in, finding Henry on his bed, homework spread around him, but a phone in his face.

"Dinnertime."

"Alright, give me two seconds." he said distractedly as he furiously typed into his phone. After a moment he dropped it onto the bed and jumped up, heading out with Emma close behind shutting the light off.

"Aren't you supposed to have your phone off while you're doing your homework?" she teased, standing at the top of the stairs.

"Eh..." was Henry's only reply. Emma smiled and headed down after him. When she got into the kitchen Henry was already sitting and dinner was on the table. Emma smiled at Regina who smiled back as they both joined their son. There was a few minutes of passing asking for this or that, followed by several minutes of the silence of eating.

"So," Regina broke the silence first. "anything interesting happen at school today Henry?"

"Not really… I had a bio test today..."

"Did you study?"

"Maybe..."

"Henry..." Regina glared at him warningly. "You had better hope you get a good grade on that..."

"I'll be fine Mom." There was another span of silence.

"I saw m… Mary Margaret and David at Granny's today, picking up lunch..." Emma said barely audibly.

"Really? What did they have to say?" Regina looked at the blonde interestedly.

"Nothing much… just asked why I was back in town." Emma replied shortly. Regina bit her lip and considered asking more but decided dinner wasn't the time to have that particular conversation. They ate in silence for the rest of the meal, no one having anything really to say.

"I'll do the dishes." Henry offered when everyone had finished.

"Thank you." Regina replied as she and Emma got up. "Em-" she started but Emma was already heading up the stairs. She sighed, wanting to go after her but decided to give her her space. Once Henry was out of the kitchen and back up in his room, she looked around, wanting something to keep her busy. She changed out the load that Emma had started and brought the ones that had been in the dryer upstairs in a basket. She went into her bedroom, surprised to find Emma there, although she wasn't really sure why. She swallowed, then walked over to the bed. Emma was lying on her side, arms wrapped around herself, staring at the wall. Regina set her basket on the floor then unloaded the clothes onto the bed and started to fold them. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Regina spoke up. "Is there something you'd like to talk about?"

"I don't know..." Regina sighed and stopped folding the clothes, sitting on the bed next to Emma. "What is there to talk about?"

"Well, I… um..." Emma flipped over to face Regina.

"See? There's nothing to talk about." Regina sighed again and realized there was going to be no light way to say what she wanted to say.

"You need to go make up with your parents." Emma winced.

"D- don't call them that."

"Alright… then you need to go make up with Mary Margaret and David."

"Why?"

"Because they care about you and they've done nothing wrong."

"Regina, they lied to me!"

"They didn't lie about anything. They just didn't tell you everything."

"Because that's so much better..."

"Emma,"

"How is it going to help me if I go and fix things with them? What else are they going to lie to me about?"

"They're not going to lie to you anymore. If I know them at all, they're going to tell you every last detail they can." Emma sighed.

"They're really my parents?" Regina nodded. "Then why are they so young?" Regina bit her lip as her eyes closed. The million dollar question she hoped she would never have to answer.

"It's… complicated." Emma sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

"You gonna start keeping things from me too?" Regina bit her lip and felt her heart plummet.

"No Emma, not at all I just… I'll tell you someday, alright?" the blonde made a noise as she got up off the bed. "Where are you goi-"

"I'll talk to them, OK? Try and fix things..."

"But where are you going?" Regina watched as Emma pulled on her boots which had been sitting on the floor next to the bed.

"I don't know. Out. To think. I'll be back later." Regina sighed and let her go, watching as she left the room and went down the stairs. She got back up and started folding clothes again and after a minute she heard the front door open then close. Henry came in after a minute.

"Hey, is Emma OK?" Regina cracked a smile at him.

"Yeah, she's fine. Just needed some time to herself."

"Alright..." Henry accepted the answer with slight skepticism, turning to leave, but he stopped. "Mom?"

"Yes dear?"

"Are you OK?" Regina made a face that resembled the smile and pain in her heart.

"Yes, I'm fine." She stepped away from the bed and toward her son, pulling him into her arms. He hugged her back, resting his head on her shoulder.

"Good." They stayed like that for a minute before Regina pulled away.

"Alright, go finish your homework." Henry smiled and nodded, then turned and left. Regina let out a breath and once again went back to finish her folding. Once she finished, she put the towels in the closets in each of the bathrooms and the clothes in their appropriate drawers. Regina checked the time and saw that it was 10:07 pm, then went to make sure then Henry was getting ready for bed before doing the same herself. She came out of the en suite with her make up gone and her face washed, then changed into her pajamas. She climbed under the covers and plugged her phone in before checking to see if there were any messages from Emma. When her notifications were empty, she felt the pit of dread growing inside her but she pushed it away. _She's fine. It's not like she left town. And what's the worst that can happen? She loses what little memories she has left? _Regina pushed all the negative thoughts out of her head and put on her reading glasses, picking up her book from the nightstand and tried to read. After several minutes of failed focus she gave up and turned out the light, settling down into bed for the night. As much as she tried to sleep, she couldn't, and found herself staring at the wall through the darkness. Finally, around 2 am Emma came home as silently as she could; the only reason Regina heard her was because she was awake. With her back turned to the door, Regina heard Emma come in and chuck her boots into the corner, then the bathroom door clicking shut. A few minutes later the same door opened again and she felt Emma's weight dipping the other side of the bed. Pretending to be asleep, Regina slowly rolled over and let her arm drape across Emma's hip. She shifted a little and tried her best to make it seem likes he was waking up.

"Emma?" her voice was quiet.

"Sorry, did I wake you up?" Emma whispered.

"No."

"Good." Regina pulled herself closer to the blonde, wrapping her arms around her waist and Emma responded by draping one arm across Regina's middle. The brunette let out a little sigh of content.

"Thank you for coming back." Regina's words were barely whispered as she fell asleep.

"Shh, we'll talk tomorrow." Emma felt her own eyes closing as she felt Regina fall asleep against her and soon did so herself.


	23. Chapter 25

Regina woke up the next morning to the sound of her alarm and reached over, turning it off. She fell back onto the pillows with a sigh, not ready to start another day after the long night she had had. She rolled over to find Emma still asleep with her back turned to her. She moved closer and wrapped her arms around her waist. Emma started to wake up and Regina released her from her arms as she turned to face her.

"No… I liked it like that..." Emma's sleep ridden voice barely whispered as she put Regina's arms back around her waist.

"Sorry, I woke you up."

"You're fine, I had to wake up at some point eventually."

"Go back to sleep, you still have some time."

"Why would I, when I could lay here and tease you instead?" Regina cracked a smile and nodded, moving back toward her, resting her head on the blonde's shoulder.

"You've just warmed right up to this, now haven't you?" Regina smirked.

"Well, you do make it hard to not want it." Emma smiled back. They laid in silence for a few minutes, Emma running her fingers through Regina's hair and playing with it and Regina tracing invisible patterns over her skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

"Where'd you go last night? I was worried." Regina finally asked. She bit her lip, half expecting Emma to just get up and leave again. There was several moments where nothing was said, making the anxiety well up inside of her. Regina knew exactly where Emma went, where she had always gone when she needed to be alone; the well. No one ever went out there, unless they were Rumplestiltskin and needed to enact a curse. Regina knew that's where she had gone, but just needed to hear her say it.

"The well. Just needed a quiet place to think." Regina nodded and relaxed again.

"Do you want to talk-"

"Not right now. Later, OK?" Regina nodded again as her second alarm went off.

"I've got to start getting ready for work.

"OK. I'll go start coffee."

"Keep that up and I won't let you go back to work." Regina grinned as she got up. Emma laughed a little and watched as Regina went into the bathroom before she got up as well and headed downstairs. Regina got out of the bathroom to the smell of coffee brewing downstairs and smiled as she went to go figure out what she was going to wear. She went downstairs a few minutes later, finding Emma wearing jeans and her red leather jacket pouring coffee into two travel mugs and putting the lid on. Regina slid into a chair at the kitchen table smiling. Emma turned and gave her one of the mugs, along with the sugar container and the creamer.

"Well this is a pleasant change, thank you."

"Anytime, it really isn't that big of a deal… it's coffee..." Regina smiled and let out a breath that sounded a lot like a laugh.

"Either way, thank you." She looked at the clock hanging above the stove. "I should get to work, I'm sure someone's already looking for me." Emma nodded.

"And I'm sure it can't look good that I'm late for my fist day."

"I'm sure David won't mind in the slightest, we're not a big crime center." Both women laughed as Emma walked with Regina to the door, then each got into their own car and pulled out, off to start the day. Emma pulled into the station and got out, looking at the building with a sigh. She grabbed her coffee and headed in. David was already sitting at his desk, thumbing through his phone with a bored expression on his face. His head shot up when he heard the bell on the door, then smiled when he realized it was Emma.

"Good morning Emma."

"Hey." she replied as she cracked a small smile. She sat down on top of the empty desk across from his and took a sip from her mug.

"How are you?"

"Good. You?"

"Fine."

"That's good." Her response was followed by several minutes of tense silence, where both attempted to avoid eye contact, but neither was achieving it very well.

"We need to talk." Both finally said at the same time. Emma's eyes widened and David just looked at her.

"I'm glad we're both on the same page, I-"

"David, we do need to talk, but not right now. Maybe later, at Granny's? Probably with Mary Margaret?" he nodded.

"That sounds good." David took a breath and opened his mouth to start talking again, but the phone rang. Emma was closer so she grabbed it and answered.

"Hello, sheriff's station, how can I help you?"

"Emma? You're back?" she sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Yes, Mrs. Henderson, I'm back at work."

"Oh, that's so pleasant to hear. But I don't have much time to catch up. I was wondering if someone could come down from the station and look into someone breaking into my shed."

"Sure Mrs. Henderson, I'll send someone right down."

"Thank you dear. I'll see you soon." Emma hung up the phone and sighed in frustration, running her hands through her hair. David was watching her, slightly awed. Emma grabbed her keys.

"I'll be back- everything OK?" she asked once she had seen his face.

"You remember Mrs. Henderson." Emma raised an eyebrow, then her mouth formed into an oh in understanding.

"Yeah, that happens sometimes." she said as she walked out. "I'll be back later." She called over her shoulder as the door shut behind her. The rest of the day had her running all over town as call after call came in, ranging from cats stuck in trees to petty thefts. By the time she had finished her last call it was well after 6:00 pm and her stomach was growling. She called David and waited for him to pick up, her foot tapping impatiently on the sidewalk outside Game of Thorns.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Emma."

"What's up?"

"We still going to Granny's?"

"Mary Margaret and I are already here."

"Shit. Sorry, my last call took forever."

"It's fine, we're not in any hurry. See you in a minute."

"Bye." Emma hung up and jumped in the cruiser and went straight to Granny's; she figured she could pick up her bug after. She walked in and looked around, immediately finding David and Mary Margaret sitting side by side in the far booth. She walked over and slid in and bot immediately smiled at her.

"Hey, sorry that took me so long..."

"You're fine Emma, really." Mary Margaret said, placing her hands on the table. Emma then turned her attention to David and play glared.

"And why did I have to take all the calls today?"

"You didn't give me a chance to even pick up to any of them!" he held his hands up in surrender. Emma smiled and nodded, looking down to pick at her thumbnail. It was true, she hadn't wanted to spend all day making awkward small talk with him, so she just answered every call that had come through and taken care of them. It wasn't exhausting by any means, just fun to poke at him. After a minute Ruby came over and took their orders, then walked away again. They sat in silence for a minute as Emma sipped her mountain dew until Mary Margaret finally spoke up.

"So..."

"You're my parents, if I remember?"

"Yes." both replied in unison. Emma wet her lips before continuing.

"But you're like… the same age as me." Neither David or Mary Margaret said anything and just looked at the table. "Or you guys have a really amazing skin routine that I need to know about." Emma kept looking at them waiting for an answer.

"I'll have to show you my face wash, it works miracles."

"Yeah… sure..." Emma said skeptically, especially after the long silence that had preceded her answer. "So, why didn't you guys just tell me you were my parents?"

"We didn't want to jump too much on you at once." David said. "We didn't want you to feel like you all of a sudden had to jump back into a family."

"So you lied and kept secrets from me?"

"Emma," Mary Margaret started. Emma opened her mouth to shoot back but Ruby came back with their food. "Thank you Ruby." the brunette smiled and walked away. "You were in a bad place Emma. We didn't want you to freak out and leave."

"Well I left anyways so..."

"That… was partially beyond our control. We promise, we're not going to keep things from you anymore." Emma bit into her burger as she thought about it. Mary Margaret and David ate as well, but kept one on her, waiting for answer.

"Alright, I'll try this." Mary Margaret burst into the biggest grin Emma had ever seen in her life and David squeezed his wife's hand, smiling as well.

"We're really glad Emma." She cracked a smile herself and nodded. They made small talk and finished eating. Once they had paid and left it was 7:54, according to Emma's phone. They said their goodbyes and at the end. Mary Margaret went in for a hug. Emma faltered for a moment, considering her options, but in the end, she let it happen. She was their daughter and all they had wanted was her back and she couldn't do that to them. The pulled apart after a moment and Mary Margaret looked at her with a watery smile. Emma smiled back and squeezed her shoulder, letting her know it was going to be alright.

"Sorry, but I've gotta get back to Regina's. Bye, I'll see you tomorrow David." Emma called over her shoulder as she headed for the cruiser. She hopped in and pulled out of the parking lot, heading for the station to pick up her bug. Sure enough, it was still sitting there, not that she had expected anyone to take the sheriff's car and swapped out before heading back to Regina's house. She pulled into the drive way, and she had barely gotten out of the car when the front door opened and she could see Regina standing in the doorway waiting for her. She got to Regina and started to explain herself.

"Sorry, I ended up having dinner with my parents and-"

"Wait, you had dinner with the id… Mary Margaret and David?"

"Yeah, we needed to work things out, especially because I'm working with David now." Regina grinned and hugged Emma tight.

"I'm so proud of you." Emma smiled and hugged her back, resting her head on the brunette's shoulder.

"I'm glad."


	24. Update 3

Hey guys!  
I'm really glad that everyone's enjoying the story, I know I am. I just wanted to give everyone a little heads up about somethings. The next few chapters are probably going to be really short. I'm going to be building relationships and characters and all that, but I'm going to be doing it more through one shot form. (The only reason I'm doing that is because I've written a couple of the chapters already and that seems to be how its working out for me). I just wanted to let you guys know why the next few chapters are gonna be like super duper short. I hope you keep reading and please, keep up the reviews!

Liz

P.S. I'll just add this in because I'm Satan, but I do know how the story's going to end and it is coming up soon :)


	25. Chapter 26

Emma looked at the clock and groaned. David was supposed to take the night shift, but Mary Margaret had called and said that they were out of baby food and she needed him to drop some off. He had promised that he would be back as soon as he could, four hours ago. Emma assumed that Mary Margaret had fallen asleep without feeding Neal or something, and she wasn't all that mad that he was taking awhile, but she was tired and wanted to go home. Ruby had made her number one person list and brought her dinner on her way home an hour before; a hoagie that had been eaten faster than you could say its name. It was almost 10:00 now and her phone had died two hours ago after she had wasted the battery shamelessly playing a cat game. She drummed her fingers on the desk, staring out the window, impatiently waiting for David's headlights to pull into the parking lot. Finally, around 11:00, he pulled in and Emma bolted from her seat. He was on his way in as she was on her way out and he grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Hey, I'm so sorry-"

"It's fine, but you owe me big time. Have a good night!" Emma called over her shoulder as she all but sprinted out. David shook his head, slightly confused by what had just happened and walked into the building, ready to have one of the longest nights of his life. Emma jumped in her bug and broke nearly every speed limit getting back to Regina's. The last thing she wanted was to fall asleep while driving and have another accident. The roads were darker than usual and still wet, as it had rained earlier in the day, making driving at night that much more enjoyable for Emma, and she only slowed down for stop signs and traffic lights to make sure no one was coming. The risk of sliding off the road was ignored as she made it into the final stretch, counting down the houses until she got Regina's. She finally pulled into the drive way and headed inside as quietly as she could, not even bothering to lock her car because she knew it would beep. The house was dark and Emma hoped that everyone was asleep and not waiting up for her. She locked the door behind herself and turned out the foyer light that had obviously been left on for her before heading into the kitchen to grab something to drink. She turned on the kitchen light, only to find Regina sitting in at chair at the kitchen table in the darkness. She nearly jumped three feet in the air, her arm pulled back and her hand drawn into a fist, ready to attack.

"Jesus Regina! What the hell do you think you're doing?" She lowered her hand and cracked the knuckles on her closed hand before dropping it.

"Emma, be quiet, you'll wake up Henry." Regina's voice was low but stern. Emma sighed.

"What are you doing? I almost went to punch you."

"What are you doing getting home so late?" Regina stood up from her chair as she folded her arms across her chest. She was wearing a fluffy robe over her pajamas and her makeup was gone.

"David had to run home for Mary Margaret and needed me to stay at the station until he got back, but it took longer than he thought it would, that's all." She went over into he fridge and pulled out a water bottle, opening it as she closed the door again with her elbow.

"You could have called, I was worried!"

"Sorry, my phone died." Regina sighed and looked away, obviously hurt. Emma bit her lip. "Regina-"

"I had no idea what had happened to you. I didn't know if you were OK, if you were alive or dead… Even Henry was getting worried about you." Emma opened her mouth to say something, but realized there was nothing she could say. She closed the top of her water bottle and walked past Regina and out of the room silently. The brunette kept her eyes glued to the floor then looked out at the window once Emma had passed by. After couple minutes Regina heard the TV turn on in the other room and she headed back upstairs.

Regina had fallen asleep a few times, drifting in and out, but never really fell asleep. She kept checking the clock and seeing that Emma still hadn't come to bed. Around 12:00 am she had heard Emma come upstairs, brush her teeth, but instead of coming into her room, she went back downstairs. She hadn't thought much of it, just that she was in the middle of a movie or something. At 2:00 am, she had finally had enough and went back downstairs again to retrieve Emma. She walked into the den to find the blonde futilely curled up on the couch under blanket, badly pretending to be asleep.

"I know you're awake Emma..." She flinched and slowly opened her away to look at Regina, who was standing in the doorway, her arms folded over her chest again.

"Yeah?"

"Come upstairs, it's late and you need to get some sleep." Emma looked shocked.

"What?"

"Bed. Sleep. Late."

"You want me up there?"

"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?"

"Because you're mad at me." Regina's mouth formed into an 'O' shape as she finally understood. She sighed and walked over, sitting at the end of the couch next to Emma's feet.

"I'm not mad at you Emma, I was just worried about you and I wish you had called, or emailed, or sent a carrier pigeon for crying out loud." She finally got a smile out of the blonde and she smiled back. "I'm not mad at you and I certainly don't want you all the way down here on this uncomfortable couch."

"No offense, but it is really bad for sleeping."

"I didn't buy it to be slept on." Emma snorted as she got up and threw her blanket off, leaving it on the couch and followed Regina upstairs. She got out of her jeans and bra, throwing them into the corner in a ball. She turned around and slipped under the covers where Regina was already waiting for her. As soon as Emma's head hit the pillow, Regina was tucked into her side, her arm curled protectively around the brunette, holding her in place. Emma noticed that Regina was closer than usual, her head resting on her shoulder and her arm draped across the blonde's stomach.

"I'm here Regina and I'm not going anywhere, I promise." Regina nodded slowly as she left her eyelids starting to feel heavy. As she fell asleep she wasn't aware of much, but she did know that for the first time in a long time, it felt like she had her Emma back.


	26. Chapter 27

Emma woke up the next morning with a start, her eyes flashing open without warning. The clock that was shining annoyingly into her face read 9:54. _Great… Regina's gonna kill me. _She rolled over and found Regina still asleep, curled up in a ball, her back turned to the blonde. Emma smiled and watched her for a moment before getting up slowly, so as not to wake Regina up. _Well, if she's gonna be late as hell, why not make it a bit later?_ Emma threw on her sweatpants that had been left on the floor at the foot of her bed and a sweatshirt to try and hide from cold morning air and headed downstairs. She went into the kitchen and started digging through the refrigerator. a mostly full box of pancake mix. _Who the hell refrigerates dry pancake mix? _She asked herself as she kept looking. A half carton of eggs was pulled out next, followed by frozen spinach, mushrooms. _Someone likes cheese… _Emma grinned to herself as she pulled out what must have been every kind of cheese that ever been made on Earth. With her findings gathered in her arms, she walked over and set them all on the counter. _Well now what?_ She stood for a moment, her hands on her hips, trying to decide what to do. Emma could almost see the light bulb flashing on over her head as she came to her revelation. A couple of eggs were cracked into a pan and the stove was turned on and some spinach was put into a separate pan to thaw as she went looking for some bread. After several minutes, Emma found that Regina still only kept fancy, whole wheat bread. _This will have to do I guess… _She threw some slices into the toaster before returning her attention to the eggs that were still cooking. She threw some of the mushrooms into the pan with the eggs and forked some of the spinach in as well. Her last touch was the cheese, several of them grated and mixed together. Her attention then turned to Regina's coffee pot. She had never liked it, but started her fight to get a pot started. After about fifteen minutes it had started brewing and Emma stood back, grinning proudly, before her face fell. She had never gotten the toast from the toaster, why wasn't it burning? She went over, only to find that she had never plugged the damn thing in. She smacked herself in the forehead with palm and plugged it in and restarted the process. Looking at the clock, she saw that it was almost 10:30 am now and she knew if she let Regina sleep any later she would kill her, but Emma was reluctant after their late night. She went up the stairs and into their room where Regina was still fast asleep. She smiled and sat on the bed next to her, pulling a piece of hair out of her mouth.

"Regina… It's time to get up…" She said softly. Regina stirred a little before starting to wake up.

"Ngh… Emma? What time is it?"

"I don't think you want to know…"

"Emma…" Regina's tone was warning as she rolled over and looked at the clock. Her eyes widened as she saw what time it was. "Emma! Why didn't you wake me up? I had things to do! Meetings planned… Oh god, I missed Melissa…"

"Regina, it's fine. You had a late night and neither of us woke up when the alarm went off, so I decided to let you sleep; you needed it." Regina glared at her and sat up, getting out of bed. "Where are you going?"

"To work Emma, where I should be." her voice was hard and cold, obviously angry. Emma stepped to the side and let her through, biting her lip. Regina was going into the bathroom when she stopped, her head tilted into the air.

"What's wrong?"

"What's that smell?" Regina could see the wave of realization wash over Emma's face. Suddenly, she was gone in a flash of blonde hair and she could be heard flying down the stairs on heavy feet. Regina followed her and walked into the kitchen, then gasped, finding it filled with smoke. She watched Emma struggle to put out her flaming food and knew if she didn't help the whole house would burn, so with a flick of her hand, the smoke started to disappear and Emma was able to dispose of the food into the garbage can. Once everything was done, Emma turned to face Regina, biting her lip with a scared expression on her face.

"I wanted to make breakfast… I kind of forgot about it..." Regina didn't reply, just took a deep breath and turned on her heel, heading back upstairs to get ready to go to work.

"Regina?"

"Just don't try and cook anything for awhile, ever if possible." Emma nodded slowly as Regina made her way up the stairs. The brunette held herself together until she got behind her closed bedroom door, leaning against it as she burst out laughing. Emma had pulled the same thing in the first few months of them dating and Regina had actually had to put out their house from burning. Emma was sitting on a stool at the counter, eating a poptart before she went to work when she heard Regina laughing from upstairs. A smile spread across her face as she knew that she and Regina were going to be OK. 


	27. Chapter 28

It was the fourth of July and Regina had needed to go into the office for half a day to finish up some paper work before a big meeting she had the day everyone went back to work. They were having a party later in the afternoon and she had left the task of starting the food and setting up decorations and such outside to Emma. The blonde had woken up at 11:00 to find a note left for her on the kitchen table outlining everything she and Henry had to do before Regina got home. She sighed and went back upstairs to wake Henry up, who was very adamant about not getting up, but when Emma threatened to hide his Xbox on him, her started to get up. Emma took the steps two at a time as she headed back down. She started with dusting the den, then once Henry came down, gave him the duster to finish the rest of the house while she went to see what food had to be made. The first thing was frozen buffalo wing dip that had to be put in the oven, so she preheated the oven because she was positive that Henry wouldn't let the house burn down.

"Henry? I'm going to take a shower!" Emma called.

"Kay!" came his response from the den. She headed up and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind herself. Henry finished dusting and headed outside to start power washing the patio furniture and patio itself. Regina came home about 10 minutes later with a sigh, kicking off her heels by the front door and dropping her purse next to them.

"I'm home!" the brunette called into the house. But she got no response. Then it registered in her head that the shower was running, so Emma couldn't hear her. She headed into the kitchen and saw out the back window that Henry was power washing. _Wow, how did Emma manage to get him to do that? _She made a mental note to ask her later. Suddenly, the over beeped and Regina checked it, seeing that it had finished heating up. She went into the freezer and grabbed the massive dish of buffalo wing dip, unwrapped it, and put it in the oven, setting the timer for 20 minutes. She then went back into the refrigerator and got out a head of lettuce, a tomato, and assorted other salad makings, setting them on the counter. She started washing the vegetables and cutting them up, humming softly as she went. As she got going, the humming turned into mouthing the words, which turned into singing softly, which grew into outright singing, but she didn't mind because no one was around to hear her.

Emma came out of the bathroom about 10 minutes later, changed into jean shorts and a white cami, toweling off her hair. She threw it into the hamper and headed downstairs. She noticed Regina's heels and purse y the door and headed off to find her. Suddenly, she stopped hearing singing.

_One, two, three, they gonna run back to me, cause I'm the best baby that they never got to keep.  
One, two, three, they gonna run back to me. They always wanna come, but they never wanna leave. _

Emma smiled and followed the voice into the kitchen, where Regina was singing, still making the salad. When the brunette got to the chorus, she joined in.

_Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me. Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all and they won't let go. Ex's and oh's._

Regina jumped and spun around, having not expected anyone to be around. Emma smiled as her face turned bright red.

"I didn't know you could sing."

"I… um… well… I can't-"

"Bullshit! You're good." Regina just blushed harder and looked at her feet.

"You really shouldn't sneak up one someone like that while they're cutting things. I could have lost a finger."

"But you didn't." Emma smiled and walked over, leaning against the counter next to Regina. She just shook her head and smiled, going back to throwing everything into the big bowl she had gotten out. Once she finished, She got some saran wrap and covered the bowl. She then turned to go get something else, but misjudged how close Emma was to her and stepped forward, finding herself face to face with the blonde. There was a moment where nothing was said, just staring into the others eyes. Regina found that she couldn't keep her eyes from flickering to Emma's lips or her mind from thinking about kissing her. Apparently Emma had the same idea because she started to move in, closing her eyes. Regina was about to close the distance between their lips as Henry burst in from outside, jerking the women apart as he flew into the kitchen.

"What's wrong Henry?" Regina was red in the face and biting her lip.

"Yeah Kid, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"There was a bee."

"A bee?" Emma asked incredulously.

"Yeah. I didn't wanna get stung. So I came inside."

"Well, there are things that can be done inside too while you wait for the bee to go away. The list is in the other room." Regina said, her mother tone in place.

"Alright." He left and once he was gone Emma cleared her throat.

"So, um..." Regina took a breath and ignored Emma, turning her attention back to the food that needed to be prepared that would be starting in a couple of hours. "Right. Got it." Emma nodded to herself before walking out of the room to find something to do.

Regina didn't really talk to Emma for the rest of the afternoon, except for if she needed something or something done. People started to show up around 1:00 pm starting with Mary Margaret, David, and Neal. Emma greeted them and led them out to the back yard, then came back inside, only to find more people were waiting at the door. Belle, Rumple, Ruby, and Granny were standing there this time. Emma brought them back too, but this time just left the front door open, she didn't think anyone was going to break into the mayor's house, whose girlfriend was the sheriff. Regina was running around the kitchen, trying to get everything ready. Emma looked over to see if she needed help, and they made awkward eye contact. After a moment, Emma opened her mouth to say something, but more people showed up, calling her name. Her green eyes looked into Regina's brown ones, telling her they needed to talk. Regina's eyes seemed to tell the blonde that she understood as Emma turned and headed into the hallway to greet more people. Mary Margaret watched the exchange from the other room, a thoughtful look on her face.

The house filled up quickly and both women were preoccupied with entertaining their group of almost 40. Emma let David handle the grill after several minutes of arguing and the promise of Granny making sure he didn't light anything on fire. Mary Margaret watched as her daughter talked with a group of people and saw that her husband was distracted as well and headed inside. She headed straight for the kitchen, not expecting to find perfectionist Regina anywhere else. She walked in, finding the brunette making a fruit salad.

"Regina?" Mary Margaret said, trying to not be too loud and scare her. Regina looked up and her eyes widened.

"Well you're definitely not who I expected to see..." Regina stopped what she was doing and put her hand on her hips, turning to face the other woman.

"What's going on between you and Emma?" Mary Margaret's face looked concerned.

"Nothing's wrong..." Regina lied badly. Mary Margaret sighed.

"Don't lie to me Regina. I saw the conversation the two of you had earlier." Regina raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"We didn't talk-" She stopped when she saw Mary Margaret's face, taking her point and sighed.

"We're not fighting if that's what you're asking." Regina folded her arms in front of herself.

"I'm not asking you to tell me. Just fix it. It's not going to help anyone, especially Emma, if you two aren't talking." Regina opened her mouth to say something but Mary Margaret cut her off. "Just fix it Regina. You need her and I'm sure as hell she needs you." With that, she was gone as quickly as she had appeared. _I'll talk to her later. _Regina told herself as she went back to making food.

It was around 4:00 pm when Emma took minute to walk around and make sure that everyone had a drink and was good, then set off to find Regina. Not finding her outside, she headed inside the house, passing through each room. Emma spotted her in the kitchen and mentally hit herself in the forehead. _Oh course, where else would she be? _Emma slowly went in, pausing in the doorway.

"You should come outside. Everyone's looking for you." Regina's head shot up from what she was doing and looked at where the noise was coming from. She realized it was Emma and relaxed.

"I've just got to finish this, and then-"

"Are we OK?" Regina looked up again, her look less distracted."

"What do you mean?"  
"You've been avoiding me all day. I thought I did something wrong." Regina's face fell as she walked over to the blonde, Mary Margaret's words repeating in her head.

"You didn't do anything wrong Emma, nothing at all."

"Then why have you been avoiding me like the plague?"

"I just..." Regina bit her lip, not wanted to spill her thoughts in the middle of their party. "I've just been busy that's all. I haven't had a second to sort myself out. I had planned on talking to you later. We're fine." Regina smiled at the blonde after a moment.

"You promise?"

"I promise." Regina smiled again and pulled Emma into a tight hug. When they let go, she spoke again. "Now get back out there and have a good time. I'll be out in a minute." Emma nodded and headed back out to the yard where Ruby and Henry were starting a game of volleyball. Finally, Regina had no more food to make and headed outside with a glass of wine in hand. She stretched out on one of the lawn chairs and smiled, watching Ruby, Emma, Henry, David, Belle, and Archie hit the volleyball back and forth over the net that Henry had made them go out and buy specifically for the day. No one really noticed that she was sitting in the corner, but she didn't mind. After a while, Emma noticed Regina had come outside and called to Hook for him to fill in for her. Once he had joined, she jogged over to where Regina was sitting and plopped down in her lap.

"Emma! Stop! You're all sweaty!" Emma grinned and wrapped her arms around Regina's neck.

"Look who finally decided to join the party." Regina rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Go change your clothes at least, and then we can talk about you sitting on my lap." Regina replied as she pushed Emma away. "Or deodorant, anything, really." Emma stuck her tongue out at Regina as she smiled again and went inside. Regina sighed smiling and went back to watching the game. Emma came back out a few minutes later wearing a new shirt and shorts and her hair was up in a pony tail. As soon as she stepped out the sliding glass doors, she was the center of attention, several people inviting her over to sit down. Regina heard Emma's name and glanced over to the patio, where they caught each others glance and Emma waved for Regina to come over with her. Reluctant to get up from her place in the sun, Regina went over to Emma and went to sit in the chair next to her, but Emma grabbed her around the waist and pulled the brunette into her lap. Regina squealed and Emma started laughing, along with several of the people around them. Regina glared at her captor, but let it go as conversations were started.

The sun finally went down a while later and people started to head home to go watch the fireworks. Mary Margaret and David were the last to leave with Neal, having helped to clean up.

"Thank you for helping, you really didn't need to..." Regina said as they walked to the door.

"It really wasn't that big of a deal, you guys would have been up all night if we didn't stay." David said, picking Neal's carrier and bag up off the floor from next to the door.

"Well, thanks." Emma smiled as Mary Margaret shifted Neal to her other arm as she hugged her daughter, then Regina before David did the same and they left. Emma closed the door behind them and leaned against it, sighing in exhaustion. "We survived."

"Indeed we did dear." Regina said smiling as she turned and walked into the kitchen. Emma pushed off of the door and followed her.

"Hey… Have you seen Henry?" Regina stopped, spinning around.

"No… I haven't..." Emma turned back into the foyer and headed upstairs to see if he was in his room while Regina went out to the yard to see if he was still out there. She turned the corner of the house and broke into a smile. Henry had fallen asleep on one of the lawn chairs, Grace Hatter sitting on the ground leaning against his chair, also asleep. Emma came out after Regina, arms swinging.

"He's not up-" she stopped as she found her son. Regina turned around and smiled before going over and gently waking up her son.

"Henry..." he stirred a little before starting to wake up. He seemed to quickly remember and started to move. "Ah ah." Regina stopped him. "I'll let you wake her up yourself." She tilted her head toward Grace who was still sound asleep. "We'll talk later." She smiled before walking away. Emma went to whisper to her when Regina had gotten back to her, but Regina made her wait until they got back into the house.

"You're not gonna freak out?"

"Emma, I can assure you, I'm freaking out on the inside."

"Regina! This is massive! And they're so cute…"

"Yes Emma, I assure you they are. Now I'm going to get a blanket to watch the fireworks." Emma nodded before going to the window to watch her son and his friend. Regina came back a minute later with a big, soft, warm looking blanket. Emma turned around.

"Henry just walked with her around the house." Regina nodded and Emma followed her outside. They moved some chairs out of the way then set the blanket up. From where Regina's house was, if they looked south, they had a perfect view of the town fireworks going off over the hill. Emma and Regina settled down on the blanket, Emma's head resting in Regina's lap. The fireworks had just started when Emma's phone vibrated next to her. She checked it, then smiled, holding the screen for Regina to read. It was from Henry.

_Watching fireworks with Grace, don't worry, Cinderella will be home by midnight._

Emma chuckled to herself as she tossed her phone back to the ground and returned her attention to the sky.

"I don't thin Cinderella would think that was very funny..." Regina teased, glancing down at Emma. She smiled to herself as she brushed some hair out of the blonde's face, her hand lingering for a moment before she returned her attention to the sky that was exploding with color.


	28. Chapter 29

As the intrusive sound of her alarm clock entered her morning, Emma groaned and rolled over, attempting to shut it off, but she missed and just knocked it off the table the noise becoming muffled against the floor. _Good enough… _she thought as she opened her eyes against the sun that was already coming in through the blinds. Pulling a piece of hair out her face wiping away some drool, she got up and stumbled sleepily into the bathroom. Regina had left for work already, having gotten up at the crack of dawn, but Emma had worked out a deal with David where he let her come in by 9:00. She took a long shower and got dressed, throwing on jeans and a t shirt. She grabbed a pop tart on her way out the door, cutting it a lot closer that she would have preferred, but the warm shower had felt particularly nice that morning. It was cool outside, but not too cool, enough that she could take off her leather jacket as she went into the station. She got there just as her phone told her it was 9:00, making David smirk at her.

"Cutting it a little close today, are we?" he teased. Emma stuck her tongue out at him as she threw her coat on the coat rack.

"Like you've never been late before..."

"Never." David said, mock innocence saturating his voice. Emma fell into her desk chair and spun toward her desk. Seeing that it was empty of any paperwork or forms, she looked at David.

"Isn't there anything for us to do?"

"Nope. I even called and asked if Mary Margaret would commit a crime just so we would have something to do. She said no and that 'she had to set a good example for her kids'." Emma smirked and shook her head, taking her phone out of her back pocket and setting it on the desk.

"Well that's stupid." she said, a laugh in her voice. When she hit the home button, the time said 9:02 am. It was going to be a very long day. The morning started with trash can basketball with rolled up pieces of paper, which soon turned into just throwing paper balls at each other. Then Mary Margaret called, asking if David could pick up a few things on his way home, which made Emma take out her phone while he was talking. When she didn't respond to her name immediately after he had finished his call and typed his grocery list into his notes, he went over to see what she was doing. She was playing some game where you take care of cats. 'Try it' she said. 'It'll be fun' she said. Half an hour later David was hooked on making animated Japanese cats happy.

"How do you get inside?"  
"You have to buy it."

"How?"

"With the gold fish at the bottom."

"The gold ones?" David asked as he pouted at his grand total of one gold fish. Emma just laughed and returned to her own game. Finally, something happened. Mrs. Morris called, saying how she had lost her cat. Emma had lit up like a Christmas tree at the chance to do something, but halfway through the call, the stupid animal walked in the back door and the phone call ended with an apology. Slumping over her desk, Emma moaned.

"I'm. So. Bored."

"Don't I know it?" David replied, propping his feet up on his desk and leaning back in his chair. The blonde had just buried her face in her arms and was about to try and take a nap when her phone went off. Emma smiled at the alarm, it telling her that it was time to go pick Regina up so that they could go to lunch. Their noon lunches at Granny's had become a daily thing, but Emma tended to get distracted, and Regina hated when she was late, hence the start of the phone alarm. She stood up and grabbed her coat off the hook, along with her keys and phone off the desk.

"I'll be back later." she said to David, who was getting up.

"Alright, have fun. I'll just be here, alone… Emma rolled her eyes.

"I'll bring you back some fries." she said as David walked over to the dart board on the other side of the room, grabbing the darts off of the table underneath it. Emma smiled to herself as she headed out to her bug. As she got in, she didn't notice the dark clouds rolling in from the east or the low rumbling in the distance. The ride was short to Regina's office and she soon found herself knocking on the door and walking upon hearing the soft 'come in'. She closed the door behind her as she entered, making her way toward Regina's desk. The brunette was highly focused, her reading glassed perched on the tip of her nose and her hand scribbling furiously. Emma sat in a chair facing the desk and waiting for Regina to reach a stopping point, having learned better than to distract Regina when she was working. After about five minutes, Regina finally looked up, taking her glasses off and setting them on the desk.

"Well hello there dear." Regina smiled.

"Hey. You ready to go?"

"Just let me get my bag and we can-" Regina was cut off by a large boom that came from outside. Both women raced to the window to see what was going on. They watched as a massive shadow whipped down the street, followed by an ear-curdling screech.

"Oh no..." was Regina's only response.

"Regina?" Emma's voice sounded scared, but curious. "What the hell is that thing?"

"Do you remember when you thought I drugged you, before you left?" Regina asked as she started to close all of the shades on the windows and turn out the lights.

"Yeah?"

"Well this is the proof that I didn't drug you." It only made Emma feel more uneasy that Regina's voice sounded as shaky and nervous as her own. The blonde's eyes widened as she watched Regina head for the door.

"Where the hell are you going?" Regina sighed, her hand resting on the doorknob. She bit her lip as she turned her head to look at Emma.

"You may not believe this, but there are only two people in town who can stop this thing; you, and me. And I'm the only one around to do it."

"I'll come with you!" Emma stepped forward, her hands tightening into fists at her sides.

"Absolutely not! You'll get yourself killed!"

"And you won't doing this alone? I can help!"

"No Emma, you most certainly cannot, end of discussion."

"No! I'm not just going to sit here while you risk your life!" Emma continued to walk toward her, obviously intending to follow the brunette into the streets of Storybrooke and the battle. Regina winced as she could hear Mary Margaret and David shouting to each other in the street, followed by another deafening shriek. This time the building shook a little and Regina knew it had hit the building.

"I'm sorry Emma, but that's exactly what you're going to do." Regina's face was full of regret and Emma raised an eyebrow in confusion as Regina raised her hand. Suddenly, Emma found that she couldn't move, only look around desperately. She tried to open her mouth to yell at Regina, but she found that she couldn't even do that. "I am so sorry Emma. I'll explain everything when I get back, but I have to know you'll be safe." With that, she left, closing the door behind her. Emma watched her pause, then watched as the door shimmered purple before returning to normal. She struggled futilely against the forces that binded her, before giving up and squeezing her eyes shut, praying that Regina would be OK.

Regina burst outside into Main Street, finding Mary Margaret with her bow and David with his sword, as well as Belle, Hook, and Mr. Gold watching from a distance.

"Where's Emma?" Mary Margaret shouted from across the street, never taking her eyes off the monster that was hovering about a quarter mile in front of them.

"She's safe." was Regina's only reply before the creature made a swoop for them, diving down and rocketing close to the ground, straight for them. Regina and David barely dove out of the way in time to avoid it. Mary Margaret made a run for it toward David and Regina, leading them to duck behind a car before the shadow monster could turn around and spot them. When it couldn't find them immediately, it took a perch on top of the clock tower, glaring menacingly down.

"Anyone have a plan?" David asked, panting to catch his breath, but keeping his voice hushed.

"No, I was hoping you had one..." Regina replied, peering up and out through the window to take a glance at the monster. She ducked back down as it moved as if it was going to take off again, before it settled down once again. After several moment of silence, Regina spoke. "Alright, I've got an idea. Mary Margaret, you run that way," she motioned to the right. "and David you go the other way. Make noise, shoot it, whatever you have to do to get it away from here. Then I'm going to try and get behind it to take it out."

"Regina it's suicide!" Mary Margaret cried, still nervously checking over her shoulder to make sure the creature hadn't moved.

"I'll be fine, now go!" she pushed the other woman away and into the street, forcing her to go along with the plan. The creature let out a horrifying screech and took off into the air as Mary Margaret started running for her life. A few seconds later, David darted out the other way from behind the car, effectively confusing the monster, forcing it to make a decision. It quickly picked David and flew after him. Regina watched until she felt she could make it to the other side of the street and went for it, hoping David knew what he was doing with his sword. Mary Margaret saw it had gone after David and looped back, heading off to help her husband fight. Regina ducked behind another car and took a deep breath, preparing herself for what she was about to do. After she heard the monster shriek in pain, presumably from one of Mary Margaret's arrows, she went for it, running down the street toward the fight. She got up behind it and made eye contact with David, who nodded at her. She took a deep breath and raised her hands, about to try and take the shadow creature out, but it whipped around at the last second, bring it's hand with it in the turn and sent Regina flying backward into the clock tower. The bricks cracked underneath her before she hit the ground hard, making a loud thud on the pavement. Mary Margaret gasped as she watched, horrified, before steeling herself and turning her attention back to the fight. She nodded at her husband and both spread out, ready to tackle the beast.


	29. Chapter 30

Emma heard a cracking noise outside, then a thud and felt her heart stop in her chest. Straining against Regina's magic once again, she suddenly found herself able to move and ran over to the window, yanking the shades up so she could see, and she was horrified. All she could see was bricks missing from the tower, crumbled on the ground, along with cracks in the sidewalk. Her eyes were then led to find Regina, lying unconscious in the street.

"No no no no no no!" Emma felt her panic rising in her chest as she ran from the window to the door and tried to open it with the handle, but it wasn't budging. She pounded on the door and kept jimmying the handle, hoping someone would hear that she was trapped inside, but had no success; no one was around, probably hiding from whatever the hell was outside. She soon found that it was doing her no good and was quickly distracted by another loud noise outside. She ran over to the window, pressing her hands and face up against it trying to see what was going on, but couldn't see far enough down the street. Making a split second decision, she took a deep breath and steeled herself, turning quickly on her heel as she charged right at the door, shoulder first, effectively knocking it off its hinges and falling with it to the floor. She scrambled to her feet ignoring the throbbing in her arm and head before dashing out into the street to get to Regina. She burst out into the street, running as fast as she could. Mary Margaret caught a bright glimpse of yellow hair from the corner of her eyes and whipper her head around as she shot off another arrow. Once she realized who it was, she gasped.

"Emma! What the hell are you doing out here? Get back inside!" she yelled over her shoulder as she continued to shoot arrows at the massive black monster looming over her.

"No! Regina's hurt!" Emma ran across the street and around a car that the monster had thrown at Mary Margaret just moments before, to where the brunette was. She fell to her knees and picked up Regina's head, resting it in her lap. Regina was cut up and bruised, with a rather deep injury on her head that was bleeding heavily, blood pooling underneath her from another wound Emma couldn't see.

"Emma! Get back inside! It's not safe for you out here!" David yelled as he rolled out of the way of a swipe.

"Would you just shut up?" Emma yelled over her shoulder angrily, pain laced in her voice, before returning her attention back to Regina. Mary Margaret growled and turned her attention to the more important task at hand; battling the giant monster and now, protecting her daughter.

"David, go over there, I'm going to try and get it in the eye, we just can't let it get to Emma!" David nodded and ran diagonally away from where he had been standing with a new vigor, anger and determination coursing through his veins.

"Come and get me!" he screamed, getting low to the ground and swinging his sword in his hand. "You wanna beat someone up? Come get me!"

"Oh god… oh god… Regina?" Emma shook the brunette violently. She didn't respond, her breathing shallow and barely there. "Um… OK…" Emma laid Regina back on the ground and tried to stop the bleeding on the brunette's forehead, pressing hard, but not hard enough to put the other woman in too much more pain but it didn't work as she watched blood seep in between her fingers. "Oh god..." Emma repeated again. Her jeans were soaked in blood, so she rolled Regina over as gently as she could to try and see where it was coming from. Regina moaned. "Oh my god, Regina! You're awake! Oh god.. um… You're gonna be-"

"Emma? What the hell are you doing out here?" Regina's voice was concerned and angry, but the effect was lost as she cried out in pain. "You really need to get back inside..." the brunette's voice was softer now, hoarse.

"Shut up and let me save your life." Emma got Regina onto her side, only to gasp and cover her mouth her her hand. Regina had a massive shard of glass sticking in her back from the clock face shattering upon her impact. "I… um..." Emma had no clue what do and she was freezing in the moment. Just as she was about to try and roll Regina onto her stomach, the brunette's breathing got hard and short. Emma yelped and rolled Regina back onto her back as gently and quickly as she could. "Regina? Regina? Talk to me!"

"Emma?" Regina's voice was getting softer a hoarser, the effort she had to use to speak becoming evident. "Get yourself inside..." the was a moment of silence where Regina focused on breathing. "I can't let you get hurt."

"I'm fine Regina! Worry about yourself! We have to get you to the hos-" Emma was stopped by Regina's breathing getting shorter, shallower. "You're going to be fine, we just have to-"

"Emma, stop." The blonde bit her lip. She was getting desperate now, bring Regina's head back into her lap to try and stop some of the bleeding again.

"Regina, I-"

"Stop." Regina's voice was barely above a whisper. "Just listen to me. Henry's going to need you." Emma held back telling Regina that she was going to be fine, especially because she wasn't so sure herself anymore. "Don't… don't second guess yourself… you'll do fine..." Emma's head whipped away from Regina face as she heard a loud screech; Mary Margaret had managed to get the monster in the eye as she as David ran down the street away from Regina and her. Emma heard Regina cough and looked back, only to find that the brunette's eyes were closed and her chest had ceased its labored rise and fall.

"Regina?" Emma put a hand on her stomach. "Regina?" Hysteria started to seep into her voice as she shook the woman a little. "Regina?" The truth finally hit her like a ton of bricks and she physically rocked back slightly. "Regina..." The tears that had been held back for so long finally fell down Emma's face. "No! You can't!" She started shaking the brunette again. "Come on, You gotta get up… please… You promised you'd come back for me..." her head fell against Regina's chest as sobs began to rack her body, her voice quickly becoming hoarse. Once the initial pain had passed and she was fresh out of tears, she picked her head up, looking at Regina's face. She was glad the other woman's eyes had closed, but at the same time wanted to see the chocolate orbs one more time. She bit her lip as she tried not to start crying again and took a shaky breath. "I love you." As she said it, Emma leaned back down and softly pressed her lips to Regina's, having never gotten the chance to like she would have that evening. A moment passed and Emma was about to pull away, but suddenly, she felt a strange warmth grow in her stomach, pushing to get out, and as soon as it had appeared, it was gone, accompanied by a feeling like something had left her. The monster that Mary Margaret and David had been fighting let out a blood curdling shriek before exploding and raining black dust over the couple. The brunette grinned a thousand kilowatt smile at her husband and tore off down the street after him, where he caught her in his arms, spun her around, and kissed her.

"We did it! We did it!" They looked at each other for a moment, laughing breathily before Emma crossed both their minds. David set Mary Margaret on the ground and the jogged off to find their daughter.

In that same moment, Emma gasped and ripped her self away from Regina, staring off into space as a lifetime of memories came pouring back to her. As everything came back, she rocked. Mary backwards on her heels, mouth open in awe.

"I remember..." Her voice was quiet, almost as if she unsure she could speak. "I remember." She said it again, more sure of her self. Then she looked down at Regina, who was still out on the ground. "I remember!" She leaned forward, gravel sticking into her hand from the pavement. "Regina! Babe! I remember! The brunette didn't wake up. "Come on! True love's kiss! I remember!" Again to no avail. Emma's face fell and tears formed back in her eyes as reality hit her like a freight train. "It didn't work..." Mary Margaret and David appeared from around a car, their faces beaming.

"Emma!" her mother started, but stopped dead when the blonde turned around, her face red and tear tracks staining her face as fresh ones fell.

"She… She's dead. True love's kiss and I remember and..." Tears started to fall faster as her breathing hitched. "… and it didn't work!" She cried as the sobs came back to force her into folding over into her own lap. Mary Margaret bit her lip hard as her own tears filled her eyes and she knelt next to her daughter, wrapping her arms around the blonde, soon followed by David.

"It's alright Emma, it's going to be alright..." Mary Margaret tried to comfort her, but the sadness, pain, and hopelessness in her own voice wasn't very convincing to Emma. _It's not alright, nothing's ever going to be alright..._


	30. Chapter 31

The next three days were the hardest Emma had ever had in her entire life. Day number one had been telling her son what had happened, watching him break, his heart shatter, his world fall apart. They had laid on his bed at Regina's for hours that day, just crying, until Mary Margaret had called and made them go over to the apartment for dinner, even though the last thing either of them wanted to do was eat. When they had finished, Mary Margaret wouldn't let them go back, which was met with empty threats and Henry bursting back into tears before storming upstairs. Emma just glared and followed suit moments later. David had gone up later to make sure they were still there and found Henry asleep, Emma lying on her side watching him, tears silently rolling down her face.

Day number two was going to meet with Mr. Caraway for funeral preparations. When he asked what Emma wanted Regina to be buried in, she started crying, flipped the table, then left. She then proceeded to walk thirteen blocks across town and got in a fist fight with Leroy down at the Rabbit hole after more than enough drinks. When David finally found her unconscious in a dumpster, her head was bleeding terrifically and he could see a dark spot getting bigger on the thigh of her jeans. Halfway to getting her to the hospital, she woke up and jumped out of the moving car and tried to run, but David caught her when she stumbled and fell. He finally got her to Whale to get patched up when they found a giant gash in her leg that needed forty six stitches in addition to the seven in her head and the cast for her broken hand. Henry stopped talking when Emma came home that night.

The third day was the worst. With nothing to do, Emma had nothing to do but lie in bed and cry, which is exactly what she did. Mary Margaret brought her meals, but always took away the previous one, untouched. Henry had gotten a little better; he had at least started eating again and had gone to school. Mary Margaret guessed that being around his friends made him feel a bit better, because when he came home he was a chatterbox and headed straight upstairs, made Emma shower, get changed, and come downstairs to eat something. But even Henry could only do so much and after only a half an hour and two and a half bites out of a piece of toast, Emma had gone back upstairs.

When Thursday came, Emma thought she could handle it. She had picked herself up, made herself look nice, even tried to put a smile on, although it disappeared after a matter of seconds. If she had gotten through Neal's funeral in one piece, she could get through Regina's as well. David drove them over to the church in his pickup, and Mary Margaret held Emma's hand the whole way. The sky was dark and cloudy, rain sprinkling down and threatening to pour; fitting for the day, in Emma's opinion. The whole town was there, but Emma wasn't surprised. Even if everyone hadn't been her biggest fan, she had died saving the town, and that was enough for people.

The mass was wall to wall people, to the point where they could barely get Regina's casket down the aisle. Throughout the whole ceremony, Emma was biting her lip and keeping Henry pressed close into her side, trying as hard as she could not to cry in front of everyone she knew. When it came to be her turn to speak, she looked at her son and took a deep breath before approaching the lectern on the altar. Adjusting the microphone, she attempted to collect herself before she started speaking. She had no paper to read off of, she hadn't wanted to try and write one; she had always wung things anyways.

"Regina Mills was an idiot." The words came out of her mouth before she even knew she was saying them. "She was an idiot who felt like she had prove to everyone that she was good enough and that deserved her second chance and that she deserved her redemption. She was an idiot who was always willing to sacrifice herself to save everyone around her but never thought for a second that everyone around her needed _her_. And she got herself killed doing just that, protecting me." There a pause as Emma drew in a shaky breath and collected herself as much as she could manage before continuing. "But she wasn't just an idiot. She was my idiot. And she was also kind, and loving, and caring, and attentive, and the best mother anyone could ever ask for. And because she's not here to kill me, I'll tell you that she was the best damn cuddler that this world has to offer." Emma bit her lip as a hushed chuckle washed over the crowd. "A lot of you knew her as the Evil Queen, but she was never really that. She was a product of the circumstances around her and if you've seen her then and you've seen her now, you know that better than anyone." Emma closed her eyes for a moment, holding back tears. "I didn't even remember her when she died." Her voice cracked, but she managed to keep herself under control. "But she deserves better than that. So I am asking every single last one of you, _do not _remember her as the Evil Queen; all she _ever _wanted to do was die as Regina, so let her. And remember her as Regina, but more importantly remember her as the woman who was so damn selfless, she died trying to save every single last one of us." And with that, Emma walked down the steps of the altar, but didn't return to her pew. She continued down the aisle until she was out of the church, hundreds of pairs of eyes watching her leave. Mary Margaret sat in stunned silence for a moment before getting up and going after her daughter.

While the mass continued inside and Mary Margaret could hear the organ being played, she hurried down the sidewalk, not quite at a run, to find where Emma had gone off to before she did something stupid again. After getting in David's truck and driving around town without luck, she was about to pull over and just call her, when she caught a flash of yellow out of the corner of her eye. Emma was sitting on a bench on the pier, staring at the water. Mary Margaret killed the engine before getting out and going to sit next to her daughter, who didn't object when she did so, but also didn't react at all. They sat in silence for a moment, the only noise the sound of the waves hitting the concrete below their feet.

"I still can't believe she's gone." Emma finally spoke, her voice hoarse. Mary Margaret looked her, setting a hand on her knee. "She was larger than life itself and she's just..."

"I know Emma, I know."

"I just… I keep expecting her to poof out of nowhere, ya know?" Mary Margaret nodded. There was another moment of silence, Mary Margaret rubbing Emma's knee with her thumb slowly, when she heard Emma sniffling and felt wetness on the back of her hand.

"Emma?" The blonde turned to face her, only for Mary Margaret to find that her daughter was crying once again, red eyes and stuffy nosed, her head bent into her lap, obviously trying to hide her pain. "Oh Emma..." Mary Margaret's heart broke as she pulled her into a tight hug, her hand splayed against the back of Emma's head. Emma closed her eyes and bit her lip hard as she felt another sob coming and shook as it whined out of her. "I know it hurts sweetie, I know." They sat like that for what seemed like hours, until Emma felt like she could never cry again. She sniffled and pulled away, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, trying not to smear her makeup, which was running down her face a little anyways. "It's going to be OK Emma, I promise." As Mary Margaret gave a comforting smile and squeezed her daughter's hand before walking with her to the truck, Emma replyed her mother's words over and over again in her head: _It's going to be OK Emma, I promise. It's going to be OK Emma, I promise. It's going to be OK Emma, I promise._ And as she got into the car, for the first time in what felt like years to Emma, she could believe it.


	31. Update 4 (The End)

Wow. That was quite the ride. I'm sorry that it ended so sadly, when I was plotting it I took it in the true love's kiss, happily ever after direction, but when I was writing it, it really just took a life of its own. This has been such an incredible experience; writing and growing as a writer (if you go read the first chapter and then go compare it to some of the later ones you'll definitely see a difference), seeing all of you like it, and I'm not gonna lie, seeing you guys writhe in angst over what would happen did bring me a teeny tiny little bit of joy.

Thank you to everyone who read this. It really does mean a lot to me. As someone who didn't think anyone would ever read anything she wrote, to have anyone consistently reading and in love with this makes me feel better than you could ever imagine, truly, thank you.

Thank you to everyone who left me reviews, pre read, proof read, post proof read proof read, and really to anyone who helped me put this thing together.

In case anyone cares, I am currently in the process of creating my own world and characters for this, to potentially turn into a novel. I've obviously got a long way ahead of me, you all gave me the confidence I needed to start that, so thank you.

So, to recap, thank you, thank you, thank you… thank you and… THANK YOU! Don't worry I've got tons of fluff coming your way in the form of one shots to ease your injured hearts ;)


	32. Update 5

Rewriting this whole thing, so please consider rereading


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